Outcomes in breast reduction surgery.

Previous studies have established that patients with macromastia rate their physical and emotional health as substantially poorer than a control population. The aim of the current study was to confirm this discrepancy, and to evaluate the hypothesis that patients with macromastia who undergo bilateral reduction mammaplasty experience a marked improvement of their general health, both physical and emotional, when compared with their preoperative state and age-matched control population. Sixty-nine consecutive patients were enrolled and evaluated preoperatively and 9 months postoperatively. The methods used for patient evaluation were the Short Form SF-36, a health-related quality-of-life questionnaire, and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), a self-reporting instrument used to assess psychological symptoms. Preoperatively, all patients reported physical health poorer than the age-matched control group. At 9 months postoperatively, patients reported substantial improvement in all areas measured by SF-36 and in the variables this study measured with BSI. Postoperative groups reported their health to be similar to the nonpatient control groups. These findings confirm the therapeutic role of bilateral reduction mammaplasty in alleviation of symptoms associated with macromastia and in restoration of normal physical and emotional functioning.