Does the Surgeon's Handedness Affect the Complications Rate in the Inframammary Approach Breast Augmentation?

Humans show a preference for left or right handedness in most cases. For this reason, surgeons might find it more difficult to operate on the "nondominant breast", i.e. the breast opposite to the surgeon´s dominant hand (left breast for right-handed surgeons and right breast for left-handed surgeons). The nondominant breast might therefore potentially be prone to a higher complication rate.

Retrospective data of all consecutive patients who underwent breast augmentations by the first author over the past 15 years was reviewed. In all cases, the entire operation was carried out with the surgeon standing on the right side of the table. All the complications of the right and left breasts were analyzed individually.

1707 patients with a minimum follow-up of six months were reviewed. Mean breast implant volume was 305.6 cc and mean follow-up was 16.12 months. A total of 151 complications were found (8.8%), including rotational deformity, capsular contracture, hematoma, seroma, bottoming out, high riding implant, double bubble deformity, implant rupture and infection. Of these complications, 77 (4.51%) affected the left breast, 48 (2.87%) were found on the right breast and 25 (1.46%) were bilateral. This difference was statistically significant.

Surgeons´ handedness seem to have an impact on the rate of complications after breast augmentation. As a result of some sort of unease when operating on the nondominant breast, this side might be prone to less precision during the dissection and, consequently, to more complications. Our study found that the rate of complications was higher in the nondominant breast.

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