Shamed Scots breast surgeon claims 'cleavage-sparing mastectomies' number is 'inflated'

The number of “cleavage-sparing mastectomies” carried out by disgraced Scots breast surgeon Ian Paterson is “inflated”, he has told an inquest for one of his patients – as he claimed it was not a new operation he performed but simply an “adaptation”.Giving evidence via video link from prison on Thursday, Paterson, 66, told Birmingham and Solihull Coroner’s Court at Elaine Turbill’s inquest that he stopped performing his version of a mastectomy as soon as he was informed by hospital chiefs in 2007 that more research was needed.The cleavage-sparing mastectomy – a term Paterson claimed he did not invent but agreed it was “vaguely descriptive” of the procedure – left behind breast tissue for cosmetic reasons, giving the impression of a fuller bust, but is believed to have increased the risk of cancer returning, something he denied.The breast surgeon, who is serving a 20-year jail sentence for wounding 10 patients after he was convicted in 2017, told the court he had “adapted” a traditional mastectomy to allow for more subcutaneous fatty tissue to remain and did not feel he needed to gain specific consent for this from the patient because it was not a different procedure.He said: “There is misconceptions and hysteria in relation to the term ‘cleavage-sparing mastectomy’.

It was a limited intraoperative adaptation. It was done to improve cosmesis and I never considered it to be a separate procedure and never described it as such.“Very few ladies were actually suitable for this kind of intraoperative adaptation which is why I have been surprised at the number of supposed CSMs discovered in my practice.

I can’t believe they are accurate. I didn’t keep a log – I didn’t think it was a different operation, it was an adaptation, so