Analysis of Race in Post Mastectomy Breast Reconstruction from 2017 to 2021
Abhishek Jain MD, Andrew James BS, Todd Hudson BS, Milton B. Armstrong MD, Fernando Herrera MD
Medical University of South Carolina
INTRODUCTION
•More than 5 million breast reconstruction procedures are performed yearly.
•Access to breast reconstruction following mastectomy has previously been identified as a racial disparity in Black patients (Soni et al, 2017).
• This analysis directly assess this issue with respect to other minority members as well.
•We compared both the number of patients that received reconstruction after mastectomy and the types of reconstruction they underwent based on race.
METHOD
•The Vizient Clinical Database was reviewed for ICD10 diagnosis codes specific for mastectomy and breast reconstruction from October 1, 2017 to March 31, 2021.
•Patients were organized into two categories: mastectomy alone and mastectomy with breast reconstruction.
•The breast reconstructive procedures were further divided into autologous (AR) and non-autologous reconstructions (NAR).
•Patient demographics were analyzed between groups. One tailed t-test analysis was performed (p<0.05 considered significant).
RESULTS
•24586 mastectomies were identified.
•15334 breast reconstructions were identified.
•More NAR surgeries were performed compared with AR nationally. (NAR – 9173, AR – 6161)
•There were no significant differences in between autologous reconstruction compared to non-autologous reconstruction based on race following a mastectomy.
•A significantly higher proportion of white patients received a reconstructive procedure than did Black, Asian, Other, or patients of Unknown Race (Table 1).
•Regional data did not show a difference in performing NAR or AR surgeries.
CONCLUSIONS
•Once a provider recommends breast reconstruction, racial disparities do not significantly impact the surgical intervention chosen (AR vs NAR).
•Whether or not a patient receives breast reconstruction appears to be affected by race.
•For the study period (2017 to 2021) more NAR surgeries were performed than AR surgeries.
REFERENCES
Clinical data base. CDB | healthcare analytics platform for clinical benchmarking. (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2021, from https://www.vizientinc.com/Our-solutions/Clinical-Solutions/Clinical-Data-Base.
Soni, S. E., Lee, M. C., & Gwede, C. K. (2017). Disparities in use and access to postmastectomy breast reconstruction among African American women. Cancer Control, 24(4), 107327481772905. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073274817729053
