Patient satisfaction: The importance of support in the decision-making process

Long are the days when the success of an operation was determined by the surgeon alone. Surgical teams are increasingly eliciting the opinions of patients themselves to ascertain surgery success, argues Catrin Griffiths. It is vital for clinicians to identify patient expectations and help patients to develop realistic surgical expectations, as meeting these are key to satisfaction

Psychological impact and cosmetic outcome of surgical breast cancer strategies

The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.comBackground: Current surgical treatment modalities for breast cancer include breast conserving surgery, mastectomy alone and mastectomy with breast reconstruction. There are recognized benefits of breast conservation and breast reconstruction over mastectomy but there are few studies assessing this area in Australia. The aim of the present study was to compare the various surgical strategies for breast cancer treatment in terms of quality of life, cosmesis and patient satisfaction. Methods: A chart analysis was conducted of all patients who underwent Breast Cancer Reconstruction at the Royal Adelaide Hospital Breast Unit between 1990 and 2002. Patients were then traced and asked to take part in an interview. Mastectomy and breast conservation patients who attended outpatient clinic for follow up were also approached. All three groups were interviewed and self-assessment quality of life questionnaires (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy−Breast, body image) were administered. The breast conservation and reconstruction groups also underwent assessment of satisfaction and cosmesis. Results: A total of 78 mastectomy, 109 breast conservation and 123 breast reconstruction patients were interviewed. Quality of life assessment was similar between the three groups but the breast conservation and reconstruction patients’ body image scores were superior to the mastectomy group. Patient satisfaction was higher in the reconstruction group than the breast conservation group of patients, while cosmesis was similar. Conclusion: While little difference was seen on quality of life assessment, body image is improved with the use of breast conservation and reconstruction. The high satisfaction and cosmesis scores in the breast reconstruction group are an indication of the superior results that can be achieved with breast reconstruction.Maria Teresa Nano, Peter Grantley Gill, James Kollias, Melissa Anne Bochner, Peter Malycha and Helen R. Winefiel

Methodology of custom design and manufacturing of 3D external breast prostheses

Breast cancer is the second most frequent cancer and the most common malignancy in women. In this disease, surgery is one of the strongest therapies to heal it. Among all the surgery treatments, mastectomy with the criteria of radical oncology is an option to bear in mind depending on the patient and clinical indication. For different reasons (age, risk complications, immunologic system) some patients discard the breast reconstruction. Within this group, 90% will use external breast prosthesis to improve their body image and hide the pathology. The existing prosthesis available have different shapes, sizes and are made by different materials (most frequently made by silicon recovered of polyurethane) to maintain a symmetrical shape of the body. However, some studies have revealed that this prosthesis is susceptible to improvement in terms of weight, esthetic result, and costs. That is the reason why this preliminary work aims to obtain an external breast prosthesis model, softer, more flexible, and with the real areola/nipple form to have a more realistic result made by Advance Manufacture (3D printing). Moreover, this prostheses could be customized by scanning the breast gland before the surgery, or the healthy contralateral breast at any time.Sin financiaciónNo data WoSScopus (Conference Proceedings)No data SPI – ICEE (2018)UE