Online Patient Reviews of Breast Reconstruction: RealSelf Analysis

RealSelf is an online community that hosts an expansive number of online reviews for cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgery procedures. The purpose of this study is to analyze patient satisfaction with breast reconstruction procedures from RealSelf to determine factors contributing to a positive or negative patient experience.

The breast reconstruction category from RealSelf.com was analyzed using a web crawler-based application built from Python and Selenium. Reviews were collected from May 2009 to November 2021. Information including RealSelf's inherent "worth it" ranking system, review text, the number of submitted photographs, and the number of readers who found the review helpful was captured. The content of the review was then independently reviewed by the authors and was categorized with key factors that determined positive or negative reviews.

A total of 3451 breast reconstruction reviews were collected. After the authors analyzed each review, 3225 (94.33%) were identified as positive reviews. The most common factors associated with positive reviews were physician demeanor (n = 2600, 31.7%), aesthetic outcome (n = 1955, 23.8%), or staff (n = 1543, 18.8%), while negative reviews were associated with unfavorable aesthetic outcome (n = 94, 28.9%), physician demeanor (n = 82, 25.2%), or postoperative complications (n = 75, 23.1%).

Although there are surveys that analyze patient satisfaction for breast reconstruction, there has not been a study that analyzed a large online review database. Predominating factors in both positive and negative reviews were physician demeanor and aesthetic outcome.