CHICAGO – Immediate breast reconstruction did not dramatically increase adverse outcomes in women undergoing mastectomy, a SCOAP database analysis found.
The popularity of immediate breast reconstruction is on the rise. Uptake rates, however, vary considerably across the country, prompting some to question whether concerns about adverse outcomes may be putting some surgeons and patients off the procedure.
Using the Surgical Clinical Outcomes Assessment Program database, researchers examined three key outcomes – 30-day readmissions, surgical complications, and surgical site infections – in 757 women who did or did not undergo breast reconstruction within 30 days of mastectomy for stage 0-3 breast cancer.
The results were reassuring, but should be interpreted within the context that those undergoing immediate reconstruction were a select group of women who were more likely to be nonsmokers and less likely to be obese or to be diagnosed with invasive cancer, observed study author Dr. Meghan Flanagan of the University of Washington in Seattle.
Click here to hear our interview with Dr. Flanagan at the annual clinical congress of the American College of Surgeons, where the data were formally presented.
Dr. Flanagan reported no relevant conflicts of interest.