Abstract
Breast cancer is a devastating disease afflicting many women. The aim of this retrospective review was to assess the physical and psychological effects of patients who underwent breast reconstruction after breast cancer surgery.
Methods
Clearance from the patients’ consultants, data protection officer and medical ethics committee was sought and granted. A participation letter was sent to 67 eligible patients who had reconstructive breast surgery between 2009 and 2011. Forty-two (63%) patients agreed to participate. These patients had a short personal interview during which two questionnaires (SF-36v2 health survey and one on the physical aspects) were completed.
Results
The patients’ mean age was 53.9 years (range 31-75). Reconstructive breast surgery using implant-only was performed in twenty-eight (66.7%) cases. Twenty-three (54.8%) of the forty-two patients had complications, with 1.35 complications/per person affected. The complication rate did not differ significantly amongst the different reconstruction groups (p=0.196). Patients who underwent autologous and oncoplastic reconstructive procedures scored significantly higher satisfaction scores than the prosthesis and prosthesis/autologous group (p= 0.01). Whether or not the reconstruction was immediate or delayed or the patients had complications, did not have statistically significant effects on the patients’ health domain scores (p>0.05). The difference of two proportions between the sample studied and the norm showed that the sample studied had a statistically significant higher depression risk than the norm population (p=0.0154).
Major conclusions
Complication rates were comparable amongst the different reconstruction techniques. A higher than normal depression risk was found in the sample studied and therefore improvement of the support services given to patients is recommended.
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Agius, M., Camilleri, L. & Galea, J. The physical and psychological effects of breast reconstruction in breast cancer patients. A retrospective quantitative analysis between 2009 and 2011 at Mater Dei Hospital, Malta. Hellenic J Surg 88, 79–84 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13126-016-0291-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13126-016-0291-0