Fig. 3.

Operation methods and skin incision types. Common skin incisions used in the current study were upper-outer-oblique (radial), peri-areolar, single axillary, or lateral chest incisions. Operation methods for NSM used in the current study included conventional NSM (C-NSM), endoscopic-assisted NSM (E-NSM), or robotic-assisted NSM (R-NSM). C-NSM is usually performed by upper outer oblique (radial) incision or sometimes peri-areolar incision. Some E-NSM patients received dual-axillary-areolar incisions (categorized as peri-areolar incision) or single axillary or lateral chest incisions. R-NSM usually adopts a single axillary incision or lateral chest incision