- It is free of organizational localization constraints limiting access to outpatient surgery, which ranks as a high priority for our governing bodies (50% of all surgeries will be performed on an outpatient basis by 2016). As the half-life of iodine seeds is 60 days, it should be possible, in theory, to insert them several days, or even several months, before surgery. In this way, patient transfer is simplified and the turnover of the operating block for outpatient management can be increased. Moreover, this localization method could also be used for tumorectomies following neoadjuvant chemotherapy,