Postoperative Outcomes and Complications in Menopaused Patients after Reduction Mammoplasty

Abstract

Background: Symptomatic macromastia is a debilitating condition that affects millions of women worldwide. Although reduction mammoplasty is the gold standard treatment, the association between estrogen levels and wound healing has been established in literature. Hence, this study aimed to compare the postoperative outcomes and complications between menopaused and non-menopaused women after reduction mammoplasty. Method: This study offers a retrospective multimodal observation and analysis comparing menopaused and non-menopaused women. Using data collected from January 2018 to May 2024, patients who met the selection criteria were divided into 2 groups. Complications following reduction mammoplasty were recorded and analyzed. Results: A total of 110 patients were included in this study, among them 80 patients were in the non-menopaused group and 30 in the menopaused group. Our statistical analysis indicated that the hospital stay was significantly longer in the menopaused group (P=0.008). Additionally, postoperative dog ears were significantly more frequent in the menopaused group (P=0.034). Conversely, scar hypertrophy occurred more frequently in non-menopaused patients (P=0.02). Conclusion: Although menopaused women undergoing single or bilateral reduction mammoplasty had longer duration of hospital stay, they did not have higher risk of postoperative complications, except for higher rate of developing dog ears, which may be ascribed to the faltering estrogen levels of this population. Non-menopaused women had a higher rate of hypertrophic scars.

Keywords

• Breast reduction
• Menopause
• Menopausal status
• Outcomes