Breast reconstruction among inner city women with breast carcinoma

Despite the known benefits of breast reconstruction, the numbers of patient s undergoing breast reconstruction remains lower than expected. The goal of this study was to survey systematically the experience of inner city breas t cancer patients with regard to breast reconstruction in an urban public h ospital setting. Between July 1999 and April 2000, 60 patients attending th e Kings County Hospital Center Outpatient Breast Cancer Clinic were enrolle d in this study. A multidimensional questionnaire was designed to explore t he factors that determine breast reconstruction among inner city women, Dem ographic analysis failed to show any difference in education, insurance sta tus, and economics between women who undergo breast reconstruction (N = 11) and nonreconstructed patients (N = 49). Patients who have undergone recons truction are satisfied with their results. Reconstructed women have a highe r rating of satisfaction with their sex life than nonreconstructed women (p = 0.041). The women without breast reconstruction had a tendency toward mo re embarrassment when undressing in front of a partner and lower partner sa tisfaction with their bodies. The most commonly sited reason patients did n ot undergo breast reconstruction was the lack of knowledge about breast rec onstruction before mastectomy. This emphasizes the importance of educating patients on all the options in the management of breast carcinoma.