Has Placement of Surgical Clips in the Lumpectomy Bed Fallen Out of Favor?

Excerpt

Surgical clips were originally developed in the early 1900s, and initially utilized for hemostasis in intracranial operations.1,2 Since then, the clinical applications of surgical clips have broadened to include procedures across all surgical disciplines. In oncologic procedures, surgeons may place clips in the cavity of a tumor bed for a myriad of reasons, with the most common being to control hemostasis; other uses include placement to mark extent of dissection, denote anatomic location during a future operation or for accuracy of postoperative imaging.3 Another value of surgical clips is technical efficiency, which may allow for decreased operative time. In reality, appreciation for surgical clip application extends beyond the surgical theater. Just as surgeons rely on percutaneously placed clips to target a nonpalpable lesion for wire localization, radiation oncologists rely on clips in the tumor bed to accurately delineate the surgical cavity, as postoperative changes on computed tomography (CT) scans may be difficult to visualize. …