Patient regrets after bilateral prophylactic mastectomy. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • BACKGROUND: The discovery of a cadre of breast cancer susceptibility genes has resulted in an increase in the number of women seeking information about prophylactic breast surgery, but virtually no large-scale prospective databases exist to assist women considering prophylactic mastectomy. METHODS: The authors constructed a National Prophylactic Mastectomy Registry comprised of a volunteer population of 817 women from 43 states who have undergone prophylactic mastectomy. RESULTS: In the registry, 370 women had undergone bilateral prophylactic mastectomy. Twenty-one (5%) women expressed regrets about the procedure. The median follow-up was 14.6 years (mean 14.8 years; range 0.2-51 years). Those with regrets were subsetted into those with major (n = 10) or minor (n = 7) regrets. Regrets were more common in those women with whom discussion about prophylactic mastectomy was initiated by a physician (19/255), compared with patients who initiated the discussion themselves (2/108; P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: The overall satisfaction rate of 95% reported here may be explained by the voluntary nature of this registry. The most important factor that predicts an unfavorable outcome following bilateral prophylactic mastectomy is a physician-initiated discussion.

publication date

  • January 1, 1998

Research

keywords

  • Breast Neoplasms
  • Emotions
  • Mastectomy
  • Patient Satisfaction

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0031756591

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1007/BF02303829

PubMed ID

  • 9831108

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 5

issue

  • 7