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Reconstruction options not always offered
Washington (UPI) Dec 23, 2008 Women seeking post-breast cancer reconstructive surgery may not be made fully aware of all available options, advocacy and physicians groups say. Not all plastic surgeons may be trained to perform the latest, complicated surgeries while another may be financially based -- some complex surgeries are less profitable for doctors and hospitals, which is a disincentive, The New York Times reported Tuesday. "It is clear that many reconstruction patients are not being given the full picture of their options," said Diana Zuckerman, president of the non-profit National Research Center for Women and Families in Washington. To help raise awareness of breast reconstruction, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons said it adopted language that that supports a woman's freedom to choose reconstructive surgery as part of the society's efforts to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. However, Dr. Michael McGuire, American Society of Plastic Surgeons president-elect , said it isn't unusual for surgeons to omit telling patients about operations they do not perform, comparing newer reconstructive procedures to initial reaction to laparoscopic gallbladder surgery. "If you were not familiar with laparoscopic gallbladder surgery, you were still doing it the traditional way with an open great big scar across the abdomen," McGuire said. Dr. Stephen Colen, chairman of plastic surgery at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, began a program at his hospital in which women can meet with an impartial physician's assistant who reviews benefits and drawbacks of reconstruction methods. "We sort of wanted to take the flow of the patient out of the control of the physician and put it in the hands of a medical person who has no personal or financial interest," Colen said. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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