Sunday, October 8, 2006
10733

Quality of Life and Self-Esteem After Breast Asymmetry Surgery

Elvio Garcia, MD, PhD, Miguel Sabino Neto, Ana Lucia Alves Lemos, Marcia Freire, and Lydia Masako Ferreira.

Objective: Evaluate the breast asymmetry surgical treatment impact on health related quality of life and self-esteem in 35 patients. Methods: We used the “Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short Form Health Survey” (SF-36), a generic health evaluation tool, that cover quality of life across 8 dimensions, and the “Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale”, a specific tool, for self-esteem. Both were applied preoperatively and postoperatively at 3 and 6 months. Results: Friedman two-way analysis of variance and Turkey test were used to compare the diferences between the scores and the periods. There was a progressive improvement in all dimensions of the SF-36, and this was statistically significant for four dimensions and self-esteem. “Role emotional” and self-esteem were significantly at 3 months postoperatively, and “pain”, “vitality” and “mental health” at month 6. Conclusion: The results suggest that breast asymmetry surgical treatment provides an improvement in health related quality of life and self-esteem.