Introduction: Breast carcinoma is the most common malignancy among women and accounts for significant mortality in developing countries. According to the National Cancer Institute in 2010; 672 new cases of breast cancer were reported, representing 18% of all malignancies in women. During the last 3 decades the surgical treatment of breast cancer techniques have a significant evolution and demonstrate reduction of agressive procedures and radical interventions such as modified radical mastectomy, conservative surgery and sentinel node dissection are clear examples of this evolution associated with immediate breast reconstruction.Methods: Retrospective observational cohort study. We review a database of 632 patients with breast cancer that underwent skin sparing mastectomy and skin sparing mastectomy with conservation of the nipple- areola complex both procedures with immediate breast reconstruction. The frequency of local recurrence between the two groups was compared.Results: 30.5% of 632 patients underwent skin sparing mastectomy with conservation of the nipple-areola complex. Women who were treated with conservation of the nipple areola complex exhibit lower survival rates to local recurrence through 10 years of follow up (80.51%) compared with women without conservation of the nipple areola complex (87.40%), this difference was not statistically significant in determining that chances of survival are different.Discussion: We found no statistically significant difference between the 2 surgical procedures (with and without preservation of the nipple areola complex) in relation to local recurrence, retrospective studies have not shown a higher rate of local recurrence in patients who are intervened with preservation of the nipple- areola complex, however there is a need of prospective randomized studies that can provide better scientific support to ensure the oncologic safety of preserving the nipple-areola complex.
