Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Outcomes In Deep Inferior Epigastric Perforator Flap And Implant-Based Reconstruction: Does Age Really Matter?, Lauren V. Kuykendall, Angie Zhang, Bugra Tugertimur, Sara Bijan, Corin Agoris, Ambuj Kumar, Deniz Dayicioglu

Surgery Faculty Publications

Despite the growing elderly population, there is limited research specific to this demographic concerning breast reconstruction (BR). Lack of evidence-based BR recommendations in older populations may contribute to misconceptions and subsequent underutilization of BR, especially autologous BR. Patients who received either deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) flap BR or tissue expander/implant (TE/I) BR by a single surgeon between July 2011 and July 2015 were surveyed postoperatively by using the psychometrically validated BREAST-Q questionnaire to determine patient satisfaction. Patients were categorized into younger and older cohorts based on median age (55 years) and further stratified based on the type of reconstruction. …