Satisfaction with and psychological impact of immediate and deferred breast reconstruction

Background: The present work assesses the effect of immediate breast reconstruction (IBR), deferred breast
reconstruction (DBR), and no breast reconstruction on the psychological impact.
Patients and methods: Standard questionnaires were used to determine the psychological impact suffered by
patients who underwent IBR, DBR and no reconstruction, their degree of satisfaction with the results achieved, and
their postprocedure opinions regarding reconstruction options.
Results: A total of 526 women underwent mastectomy. The response rate to the questionnaires was 71.67%. A
significantly greater proportion of the women who underwent no reconstruction suffered psychological problems than
those who underwent reconstruction of some type (P = 0.01). Some 94.77% of the women who underwent IBR
maintained a postprocedure preference for this option; in contrast, some 87.27% of the DBR and 56.14% of the
no-reconstruction patients declared a postprocedure preference for IBR. In all, 63.49% of the women who underwent
reconstruction were moderately very satisfied with the aesthetic results achieved, while only 22.80% of the noreconstruction
patients declared such satisfaction (P = 0.0001).
Conclusions: The women who underwent no breast reconstruction suffered more emotional problems than those
who underwent a reconstruction procedure. In general, all groups reported a postprocedure preference for IBR in their
questionnaire answers. The aesthetic results achieved by IBR seem to be those best accepted.