EPICUTANEOUS BREAST FORMS - A NEW SYSTEM PROMISES TO IMPROVE BODY-IMAGE AFTER MASTECTOMY

Mastectomies will remain a treatment alternative for breast cancer in spite of efforts to perform more breast-conserving treatment. Restorat ion of body symmetry may then be an important issue, which can be achi eved by surgical breast reconstruction or with an epicutaneous breast prosthesis. A new improved system has recently been developed, which i s self-adhesive to the thorax wall. In this study we investigated the advantages and disadvantages of the new system. The body image of 55 p atients after unilateral mastectomy was assessed before they entered t he study and after approximately 6 months of experience with the syste m. The ''Frankfurter Korperkonzeptskalen'' plus additional questions c oncerning problems after mastectomy and the handling of the new breast form were used for the assessment. About 50% of the patients had prob lems with the adhesiveness of the breast form, which remains a problem to be solved. Patients who suffered badly from mastectomy, have a smo oth and plane mastectomy scar, and who were not suffering from hot flu shes, which can impair the adhesiveness of the prosthesis: were more l ikely to profit from the new self-supporting breast forms. Significant differences were observed in the scales ''self-acceptance of the body '', acceptance of the body by others for the subsets of patients menti oned above. The differences were less pronounced in patients who were already familiar with another type of epicutaneous breast form, which is attached to an adhesive plate on the thorax wall by nylon touch and close fasteners. Most (90.7%) of the patients would recommend this ne w type of breast prosthesis for other patients with mastectomy. The co ncept of self-supporting breast forms is an improvement with respect t o social and psychological rehabilitation. According to the manufactur er, the problem with adhesion has meanwhile been solved.