Purpose Statement

Obesity has greatly increased in prevalence in the United States over the past 30 years. Subsequently, the number of patients who experience massive weight loss, either with the help of bariatric surgery or otherwise, has also increased. This has produced a large number of unique patients who desire body contouring surgery. There is little outcomes data available in the literature relative to the size of this growing population. Also, there are no published prospective studies examining factors which may influence patient satisfaction in this group. Psychological traits of plastic surgery patients have been studied within several populations including cleft lip, breast reduction and breast reconstruction patients. Patients' pre-operative psychological state has been reported to influence postoperative satisfaction within the latter. It is likely that patients' psychological profile plays an important role in determining whether they are satisfied with their surgical experience in many areas of plastic surgery. The purpose of this study is to examine the following hypotheses: 1) Satisfaction will be directly correlated with agreeableness on the personality index and inversely correlated with neuroticism. 2) Quality of life, self image and self esteem scores will improve following body contouring surgery. 3) There will be lower satisfaction when pre-op expectations are different than post-op course. 4) There will be lower satisfaction scores in patients with post operative complications.

Materials and Methods

This study employs a longitudinal, prospective, within-subjects design. The study was reviewed and approved by the Committee for Protection of Human Subjects. Subjects are invited to participate at the time of consultation for body contouring surgery in the Section of Plastic Surgery at a rural, tertiary care medical center. Body contouring is defined as panniculectomy, abdominoplasty, brachioplasty, thigh-plasty, body lift, liposuction or mastopexy. Any adult patient meeting these criteria and deemed an acceptable surgical candidate is eligible for inclusion. Informed consent is obtained at the time of initial consultation from those who agree to participate. Subjects are then administered the pre-operative set of surveys: 1) NEO-Five Factor Inventory personality index (NEO-FFI), 2) SF-8 general quality of life inventory,3) Body Image Quality of Life Inventory (BIQLI), 4) Multidimensional Body Self Relations Questionnaire- Appearance Scales (MBSRQ-AS) as well as 5) questions regarding expectations about the surgery and 6) standard demographic questions. The provider evaluating the subject also completes a form to verify patient reported information at this time. The body contouring surgery is then scheduled and performed per the provider's routine. The post-operative set of surveys is administered at the 3 month post-operative follow-up visit. This includes the SF-8, BIQLI, MBSRQ-AS as well as questions regarding general satisfaction, fulfillment of expectations and the Decisional Regret Scale. The provider again completes a form to verify information provided by the patient. These results are tabulated and analyzed using appropriate statistical methods.

Results/Conclusions

To date, 13 patients have been enrolled in the study of which 13 have completed the preoperative survey. Ten subjects have undergone surgery and 3 have completed the post-operative surveys. It is anticipated that complete pre and postoperative results will be available on at least 15 patients at the time of the Senior Residents Conference.