Study indicates breast reduction could improve quality of life as much as joint replacement

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Breast reduction surgery, also called reduction mammoplasty/mammaplasty, could improve the health-related quality of life as much as a hip or knee joint replacement does.
      The information is based on a recent Finnish study, which has been published in the Scandinavian Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and Hand Surgery.
     
Questions relating to the quality of life were asked from 82 patients before reduction mammoplasty, and from 29 patients six months after the operation.
      Before breast reduction surgery their quality of life was clearly inferior to that of the age-standardised female population, but over the next six months after the operation, the respondents’ health-related quality of life improved to the same level as the other female population.
     
The results came as no surprise to plastic surgeons.
      ”The fact has been known already for a long time”, said one of the researchers, Dr. Kai Saariniemi, who is specialising in plastic surgery in Tampere.
      The health-related quality of life was assessed using a method that applies to all special fields of medicine.
      The mean age of the participants in the test was around 40 to 50 years, while those who normally get a new hip or knee joint are closer to their 70th birthday. The effect of the age difference was nevertheless taken into account when evaluating the results.
     
While many women in the celeb columns of the glossy magazines are hankering after bigger breasts or bragging of their saline or silicone gel implants, the problems of those who suffer from excess breast tissue are in a class of their own.
      An average size of a silicone gel-filled implant in Finland is around 2-3 decilitres, but according to the survey, the amount of tissue removed from one breast was 700 grammes on average, or at least double the size of average silicone implants.
      The reasons for these two types of surgery are also different. Silicone implants and breast lifts belong to aesthetic surgery, and in Finland such operations are not made in public hospitals.
     
The reduction of breasts aims at improving certain medical ailments, including pain in the neck and shoulder area.
      Those patients who are content with the results of their breast reduction operation list the benefits on online discussion forums: to get rid of continuous headaches, to be able to wear pretty clothes, to go to the gym when the breasts are not constantly getting in the way.
     
The queues for surgery became shorter only after the guarantee of health care entered into force in Finland. Before that it was quite common that after the diagnosis had been made a patient might have to wait for treatment for five to six years.
      Operations are generally large and one in five patients suffer some form of complications. Breast-feeding is usually not impeded by the procedure, but in most cases the recommendation is that the operation should be carried out after child-bearing is over and done with.


Links:
  Breast reduction (American Society of Plastic Surgeons)
  Breast Reduction (Wikipedia)
  "The improvement in quality of life after breast reduction is comparable to that after major joint replacement" (Abstract, Scandinavian Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and Hand Surgery, Volume 42, Issue 4, 2008)

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