The Present State and Prospective Trajectory of External Breast Prosthesis (EBP): A Global Overview

This study intends to examine and describe the current and future status of the utilization of external breast prostheses (EBP) amongst global women diagnosed with breast cancer who have had a mastectomy. To avoid breast reconstruction, many women choose external breast prostheses (EBP) for varied reasons. This study included literature from ScienceDirect and PubMed to select relevant global articles from the year 2011 to the year 2023. The terms "external breast prosthesis breast cancer" were used as a search title for abstracts and keywords to source articles from both databases. Similar and related terms were used concurrently for searches conducted in ScienceDirect and PubMed. For this mixed-method review, qualitative data gave way to an in-depth exploration of the phenomenon, while the presentation of quantitative data demonstrated the tabulation of global publications on EBP. All studies focused on EBP use among post-operative women. A total of 22 journal articles were selected for this review. From the data six (6) themes were identified viz.; patient satisfaction, comfort, quality of life, knowledge about external breast prosthesis, cost, and material. Our findings showed that the literature had fifteen (68%) of the publications on patient satisfaction, sixteen (73 %) on comfort, twenty (91%) on quality of life, and fifteen (67%) on material. From the published literature, there was an observed dearth of information on knowledge and cost with only eleven (50%) and eight (36%) articles respectively, which indicates limited access to pertinent information for both healthcare providers and patients. The results suggest that more research is needed to provide the best quality information and approaches when looking at EBP for female breast cancer care and post-operative rehabilitation.