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[Contribution to the study of painful and functional sequellae after breast reconstruction using latissimus dorsi
A Faucher1, M Barrault, I Duguey
1Service de chirurgie, centre régional de lutte contre cancer, institut Bergonié, 229, cours de l'Argonne, 33076 Bordeaux cedex, France. faucher@bergonie.org
Latissimus dorsi flap is the most commonly used among tissues transfers for breast reconstruction. If its qualities and performances are well known, few papers have studied sequellae of this flap, particularly painful. The purpose of this paper is to provide a contribution about this subject. Postulating the complexity of this step, we limited ourselves initially to an evaluation based on analysis of concise questionnaire mailed to two pools of patients with different delays since their reconstruction using latissimus flap. In the two groups of patients, announced principal embarrassment - logically associated with a gestural limitation - is the feeling of axillo-dorsal rigidity, more pregnant than the pain itself. This one is marked during the 2 to 4 first months in the majority of the patients (68 and 66 %), and can persist several years in some among them (14 %). These after-effects did not prevent almost all of the patients to take again their domestic and professional activities and to express a high level of satisfaction with respect to their reconstruction. The addition of a prospective series studying the postoperative pain after reconstruction with or without latissimus flap tends to confirm that any oncologic breast surgery, ablative or reconstructive, expose to painful sequellae more linked to individual factors than to the technique implemented.
Latissimus dorsi flap is the most commonly used among tissues transfers for breast reconstruction. If its qualities and performances are well known, few papers have studied sequellae of this flap, particularly painful. The purpose of this paper is to provide a contribution about this subject. Postulating the complexity of this step, we limited ourselves initially to an evaluation based on analysis of concise questionnaire mailed to two pools of patients with different delays since their reconstruction using latissimus flap. In the two groups of patients, announced principal embarrassment - logically associated with a gestural limitation - is the feeling of axillo-dorsal rigidity, more pregnant than the pain itself. This one is marked during the 2 to 4 first months in the majority of the patients (68 and 66 %), and can persist several years in some among them (14 %). These after-effects did not prevent almost all of the patients to take again their domestic and professional activities and to express a high level of satisfaction with respect to their reconstruction. The addition of a prospective series studying the postoperative pain after reconstruction with or without latissimus flap tends to confirm that any oncologic breast surgery, ablative or reconstructive, expose to painful sequellae more linked to individual factors than to the technique implemented.