Awareness, acceptance, and perspective of women for reconstruction post Mastectomy.

Objective: To assess the level of awareness and acceptance among women for breast reconstruction surgery after mastectomy.

Methods: The observational cross-sectional study was conducted at King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from November 2014 to April 2015, and comprised women aged 19-65 years with breast masses and women with high risk for breast cancer who were offered therapeutic mastectomy. The subjects were interviewed using a structured and validated questionnaire. Data was analyzed using SPSS 21.

Results: Of the 224 individuals approached, 209(93.3%) participated. Of them, 106(50.7%) considered having reconstruction and 97(46.4%) had read or heard about it. The most influencing factor for reconstruction was improving their psychological status 84(40.2%) and the most common reason for refusal was old age 26(12.4%). Patients who were 40 years or younger were more willing to undergo reconstruction (p=0.001).

Conclusions: Patients with knowledge about breast reconstruction were more willing to accept the procedure. Increasing the awareness will increase acceptance of breast reconstruction..