Breast Reduction Study: Obese O.K.!
Breast Reduction, Plastic Surgery Science Comments Off
Plastic surgeons worldwide often have different requirements for breast reduction patients.
The Body Mass Index (BMI), is a measure of how much body fat you have. A BMI of 20 to 25 is considered ideal while a BMI of 40 indicates obesity.
Often used in other procedures (like the Lap Band which requires a BMI of 40 for the procedure) high BMIs may cause some surgeons to turn down breast reduction requests.
Now, a study on BMI and breast reduction currently running in a July, 2010 issue of the Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Aesthetic Surgery, a professional magazine for plastic surgeons, shows that ruling out patients with high BMI may not be a good idea, after all.
Breast reduction is often done to prevent a whole host of other medical woes. So English cosmetic plastic surgeons at The Royal Free Hospital in London studied the medical records of 306 breast reduction patients over five years.
The study subjects’ BMI measures ranged from entirely normal to very obese.
The doctor/researchers looked very carefully at:
- Patients’ BMI
- Tobacco use
- Surgical technique
- Complications
- Outcome of surgery
Results? Long incisions on the breasts as well as tissue removal is required so the entire group had a complication rate of 53.9 percent. Several complications were present in 22.9 percent of patients.
Plastic surgery complications include:
- Infections
- Bleeding
- Seroma (watery buildup under the skin)
- Hemotoma (a pool of blood under the skin)
Patients with high BMIs, however, had more complications, including several at once.
But the news was worse for smokers: that group had higher rates of dehiscence; when the surgical incision pulls apart.
But after the complications were handled, the high BMI group had outcomes that were just as aesthetically pleasing to the eye as more normal weight patients.
Conclude the authors: “..the majority of complications were minor and aesthetic outcomes were satisfactory in the majority of cases.” (More about the breast reduction surgery study.)
So the authors hope that health plans and surgeons will be more cautious about excluding obese women from breast reductions.
At least, patients who smoke and are too fat will have a better idea what they must go through to lose overly large breasts and all the associated problems.
Look at some breast reduction before and after pictures.
admin @ August 26, 2010
