A population-level analysis of bilateral breast reduction: does age affect early complications?

[BACKGROUND] As the American population ages, a growing number of women may suffer from symptomatic macromastia in their later years.

[OBJECTIVES] The authors analyzed population data from the 2005-2010 American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database to investigate effects of age on 30-day surgical outcomes for reduction mammaplasty with the hope of improving patient care, counseling, and risk stratification.

[METHODS] Overall, 3537 patients were included in the analysis. Outcome variables included 30-day postoperative major surgical, medical, and wound complications. Patients were initially stratified into 2 groups: <60 years and ≥60 years. The World Health Organization defines age >60 years as elderly. The authors then performed a subgroup analysis, further stratifying the younger cohort into <50 years and 50-60 years of age. Univariate analysis was performed to assess the dependency of preoperative factors on surgical outcomes (P < .05).

[RESULTS] Of the 3547 patients, 3050 were <60 years of age (39.7 ± 11.8 years) and 487 were ≥60 years of age (65.1 ± 4.7 years). A total of 182 thirty-day postoperative surgical complications were documented. Stratifying patients into 2 age groups did not reveal an association between age and any surgical complication (P = .26).

[CONCLUSIONS] This population-level analysis of reduction mammaplasty indicated that, with proper patient selection, the procedure can be performed safely on older patients.