mastectomy remove the "tail of breast"

Your question intrigued me, I had never heard that term before either. I thought it might be covered in a currently active thread "mastectomy bulges under arms" in the prothesis and reconstruction alternatives board. These are called dog ears or in one case, the surgeon called them dog tails. In another thread on that board it was called the tail of the breast. In the discussion I read, noone seemed concerned about breast tissue being left behind, they were concerned about unsightly and annoying bulges and they would have preferred that this tissue/fat? had been removed at the time of the mastectomy. It doesn't seem to be as much a problem if you are going for reconstruction. I also tried the search function under the discussion boards, I just searched  the word tail and of course got mostly, but not only pony tails and pet tails, but I think you might find something that way, I think you are wise to talk to your breast surgeon about breast tissue left behind and, if so, what type of monitoring you might need.Hope this helps and also that you are healing well!

Julie E

My path report led me to understand that the tail portion of the breast is taken. It talks about nodes it found in the "tail portion which was identified with 2 sutures". I guess the pathologist needs to know where the tissue came from.

Dog's ears are just where the surgeon has to stop taking fat. Mine said they have to decide and just do it under the arm as that doesn't normally show. Makes sense.