Anxiety and depression conditions do not influence postoperative satisfaction in breast reduction patients

Abstract

In literature there are reports on alleviation of depressive symptoms and anxiety levels and increased quality of life in individuals who underwent breast reduction. However, the relation of this improvement with patient satisfaction is unclear. The purpose of our study is to fulfill the aforementioned objective. In this study, A total of 72 female patients who were operated for only reduction mammoplasty between 2011 and 2015 were included. Technical details regarding the surgery were recorded. Patients were applied Beck Depression Scale (BDS) and Beck Anxiety Scale (BAS) preoperatively. In the 6 th postoperative month, Beck scales were repeated and patient satisfaction was evaluated via “Visual Analogue Scale “(VAS). Also, surgical outcome has been graded by three other plastic surgeons from one to 10. Data were evaluated statistically. Apparent postoperative alleviation BDS and BAS scores was significant at postoperative 6th month. Average VAS scores for the patients’ postoperative satisfaction with their surgical outcome was 8.8. These scores by three other plastic surgeons were found to be 7.6. Individual satisfaction scores and professional evaluation scores were found to yield positive correlation. The tissue amount excised was not found to be correlated with patient age or satisfaction, however it was found to be negatively correlated with professional evaluation. Moreover, regression analyses revealed patient satisfaction was not influenced by anything other than the surgery itself. In other words, preoperative BDS and BAS scores were not found to be predictors of postoperative patient satisfaction. To our findings, although depression and anxiety symptoms improve after breast reduction surgery, patients are not influenced by their preoperative psychological condition when assessing their surgical outcomes. This important finding may be a possible preoperative relief for the surgeon who is dealing with an anxious or depressive breast reduction patient.