Original ArticlePrevalence of Post-Mastectomy Pain Syndrome and Associated Risk Factors: A Cross-Sectional Cohort Study
Section snippets
Methods
After informed consent of patients and approval by the institution’s Internal Review Board under reference #048/06, a cross-sectional cohort study was conducted involving 250 women attending the oncology clinic at the Barão de Lucena Hospital, Recife, Pernambuco in northeastern Brazil between November 2006 and May 2007.
Women of 18 to 75 years of age who had been treated surgically for breast cancer were included in the study. Patients with local or distant metastases, arthritis, or any other
Results
Two-hundred-fifty women were included in the study; however, only 111 patients developed PMPS. The study population consisted of middle-aged women with a mean age of 54 ± 12 years, and more than half the patients were ≥50 years of age. Although the majority of the patients were literate, less than 20% had attended school for more than eight years. Approximately 36.6% of the women were obese, and 51.2% were married. With respect to the surgical procedures, modified radical mastectomy was
Discussion
In the present study, modified radical mastectomy represented 47.2% of the surgeries carried out to treat breast cancer whereas the majority of patients (52.8%) were submitted to quadrantectomy with axillary lymphadenectomy. PMPS was found in 44.4% of the women, and the risk factors for this syndrome consisted of a previous history of headache, age <50 years, and having undergone quadrantectomy with axillary lymphadenectomy.
Breast cancer is the principal cause of death in women in the United
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