Aesthetic outcomes of oncoplastic surgical techniques in large benign lump of breast using breast Q tool

Abstract

Large benign breast tumors encompass an array of conditions resulting in breast asymmetry with significant physical and mental morbidities. Breast oncoplasty, in these conditions have better aesthetic outcomes. Here, as the opinion of the patient is superior when compared to subjective opinion of the surgeon, breast Q tool, can be a tool to assess outcomes after using oncoplastic techniques. The following case series includes 20 patients admitted with large benign lesions of breast undergoing oncoplastic surgery, who were assessed to evaluate their satisfaction with breast, nipples, information surgeon and medical team, before and after breast oncoplasty, using breast Q tool version 2.0 reduction mastopexy module, where pre-operative and post operative scores are noted and also converted into equivalent RASCH scores (statistical analysis used: statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) v.20 software). From the case series it was found that the average pre-operative scores for satisfaction with breasts was 21.95 and post-operative score was 42.95 (p value of 0.0001). Majority of patients had maximum scores for satisfaction with nipples (47% with breast Q score of 20 out of 20), satisfaction with outcome (45% with RASCH score of 100 and 55% with RASCH score of 92), satisfaction with information (55% with RASCH score of 100) and satisfaction with medical team (75% with RASCH score of 100). It was clearly noted that from breast Q tool for reduction mammoplasty, there was excellent post-operative satisfaction among patients across various domains, when oncoplasty is employed for large benign breast diseases.