Many women suffer long–term chronic pain following breast surgery treatment, which can seriously affect their quality of life and impact on the outcome of their treatment.
Recent research has shown that some women who undergo surgery for breast cancer still suffer some level of pain 12 months after their surgery. Data collected as part of the National Mastectomy and Breast Reconstruction Audit (revised October 2012) looked at the outcomes of breast surgery and particularly at what is known as patient reported outcomes, or PROMS. This provided valuable insights into the patient experience following breast cancer surgery as it was found that 8% of patients remained in pain most or all of the time after immediate reconstruction surgery and 9% after delayed breast reconstruction.
Senior Consultant Breast Surgeon Mr Giles Davies believes that attention needs to be paid to managing pain following surgery so as to improve the overall outcome of treatment.
He said: “The postoperative management and care for women undergoing surgery for breast cancer greatly affects both the cosmetic and psychological outcome of the surgery and is in my view absolutely fundamental. Improving early pain control could have a big impact on the long term outcomes of surgery.”
To read more about the approach that Mr Davies takes to pain management for his patients click here.
