Does Unilateral Mastectomy Cause Scoliosis?

Lee, Sung Wook; Lee, Taik Jong; Lee, Sung Woo

Abstract

PURPOSE: It is known that the chronic absence of unilateral breast can cause spine curvature. The artificial breast manufactures take up the position of that possibility. This study was designed to evaluate the influence of the mastectomy on the spine and appearance of scoliosis among women who wanted delayed breast reconstruction. ted delayed breast reconstruction.
METHODS
The study population consisted of 47 women who underwent delayed breast reconstruction at our Department of Plastic Surgery from April 2001 to May 2007. The whole spine anteroposterior and lateral X-ray was taken to evaluate the Cobb's angle. As a general rule a Cobb angle of 10 is regarded as a minimum angulation to define scoliosis. We evaluated Cobb's angle and drew a correlation between the duration of the mastectomy state and the weight of the mastectomy specimen.
RESULTS
There were no family history of scoliosis, and no numbness or weakness in the upper or lower extremities. They had normal reflex and experienced no tenderness of the perispinal area. The Spearman Correlation Coefficient between Cobb's angle and the period that took time from the mastectomy to the X- rays and analysis between Cobb's angle and specimen weight was 0.032 and-0.115. there were no correlation between Cobb's angle and time, or between Cobb's angle and specimen weight.
CONCLUSION
lthough the patients attribute their back pain and distorted posture to having received an one- sided mastectomy, it is unlikely that one-sided mastectomy causes spinal deformity and scoliosis.