Exploring post mastectomy patients’ experience on handmade knitted breast prosthesis, a project lead by the breast nurse specialist

Abstract

Objective: Not all post mastectomy patients are eligible for immediate or late breast reconstruction. Therefore, an appropriate external breast prothesis (EBP) after mastectomy can inspire patient’s copying mechanism, self-confident and improve body image. This study aims to highlight the perceived comfort, confidence, satisfaction of post mastectomy women with the use of knitted EBP.
Methods: A cross-sectional study design was implemented, and 51 participants completed an electronic questionnaire survey. The survey consisted of 26 close-ended questions related to body image satisfaction, confidence, satisfaction with the knitted EBP.
Results: Interestingly, almost more than half of the participants reported dissatisfaction with their physical appearance following mastectomy if they do not wear the EBP and they were highly confident after wearing the EBP (76%) and (86%) respectively. Moreover, almost all participants reported their satisfaction regarding the EBP in terms of weight and stated that it is light and can be worn with almost all types of clothes (94%) and (70%), respectively.
Conclusions: Our study shows that the majority of post mastectomy women had grateful experience with the knitted EBP and reported better self-confidence after wearing the breast prosthesis. However, there is no effect of EBP on young patient’s decision to have breast reconstruction in future.