Radiation Therapy is associated with greatly increased risk for capsular contracture and reoperations. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Delayed Breast Implant Reconstruction: Is Radiation Therapy Associated With Capsular Contracture or Reoperations?
Ann Plast Surg. 2011 May 2. Epub 2011 May 2. PMID: 21540726
From the *Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen, Denmark;
We evaluated the association between radiation therapy and severe capsular contracture or reoperation after 717 delayed breast implant reconstruction procedures (288 1- and 429 2-stage procedures) identified in the prospective database of the Danish Registry for Plastic Surgery of the Breast during the period between 1999 and 2006. A history of radiation therapy was associated with increased risk of severe capsular contracture for 1- and 2-stage procedures, with adjusted hazard ratios (HR) of 3.3 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.9-12.4) and 7.2 (95% CI: 2.4-21.4), respectively. Similarly, a history of radiation therapy was associated with a non-significantly increased risk of reoperation after both 1-stage (HR = 1.4; 95% CI: 0.7-2.5) and 2-stage (HR = 1.6; 95% CI: 0.9-3.1) procedures. Reconstruction failure was highest (13.2%) in the 2-stage procedures with a history of radiation therapy. Breast reconstruction approaches other than implants should be seriously considered among women who have received radiation therapy.