Background
Patient satisfaction are the primary goal in breast augmentation, but in a few cases patient and surgeon satisfaction are in disagreement.
Objectives
The authors try to explain the reasons associated with disparity between patient and surgeons’ satisfaction.
Methods
Seventy-one patients underwent primary breast augmentation with dual plane technique with inframammary or inferior hemi-periareolar incision were enrolled in this prospective study. Quality of Life using BREAST-Q pre- and post-operative was evaluated. A pre and post photographic analysis was performed by a heterogeneous group of experts whom completed the Validated Breast Aesthetic Scale. Satisfaction with breast score was compared with overall appearance of VBRAS; a difference in score ≥ 1 was considered as discordant judgement. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 18.0, with values of p<0.01 considered statistically significant.
Results
BREAST-Q analysis, showed a significative improvement of QoL in Psychosocial Well-Being, Sexual Well-being, Physical Well-Being Chest scale and Satisfaction with Breast (p<0.01). Of the 71 pairs, 60 had a concordant judgment between patient and surgeon and 11 discordant. The score expressed by the patients (4.35±0.69) was on average higher than that of the third-party observers (3.88±0.58) with p<0.001.
Conclusions
Patient satisfaction is the main goal following the success of a surgical or medical procedure. BREAST-Q and photographic support are 2 important tools in the preoperative visit to understand the patient's real expectations.
Background
Opening a new practice is always challenging, and one of the main problems is how to engage patients. Most of them use social media to gather information about surgery and surgeons.
Objectives
The aim was to evaluate social media's impact on a new practice compared with a long-standing one, run by the same surgeon. Furthermore, changes in patients’ and surgeons’ perspectives towards social media through the last years were studied.
Methods
A questionnaire was administered to patients consulting for primary breast augmentation in the two aforementioned practices regarding their interaction with social media before booking a consultation. Another questionnaire was administered to 152 surgeons to assess their perception of social media.
Results
Two hundred forty-seven patients in Italy and 129 in Sweden answered the questionnaire. In the first year of Italian practice, 97.2% of patients booked a consultation with the surgeon thanks to social media; after 3 years, the percentage dropped to 68.02%. Comparing Italian and Swedish patients, 68.02% vs 28.68% booked a consultation with the surgeon specifically thanks to social media, 91.09% vs 79.84% researched about him before booking a consultation, 36.03% vs 10.08% contacted him before booking an appointment. One hundred fifty-two surgeons from 24 different countries answered the questionnaire: 77.9% opined that social media positively affected their practice.
Conclusions
Social media is fundamental in patient-surgeon interaction and can strongly influence patient inflow, especially at the beginning of a new practice. Surgeons should be capable of using these tools to engage patients, bearing in mind their important role in patients’ education.
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