Electrocardiographic changes after breast reduction surgery

Abstract

Macromastia is associated with symptoms related to postural changes and decreased mobility. Breast reduction surgery (BRS) is the treatment of choice for these patients. Anatomical and structural changes in body posture and habitus might cause changes in electrocardiography (ECG). In this study, we aimed to evaluate the outcome of BRS on ECG changes of the patients after surgery. Study population included 33 female patients who had undergone BRS. ECG records of every patient before procedure and 6 months after procedure were analyzed retrospectively. Patients were naïve of known cardiac diseases and the patients did not have any known arrhythmia. The mean age of the study population was 40.8 ± 9.6. Total removed breast tissue from both sides was 1493 (1052–2138) mL, as 800 (513–1093) mL removed from right side and 740 (519–1050) mL removed from left side. There were significant changes in ECG of the patients in post-operative period. Atrial conduction parameters such as, PR duration (p<.001), Pmax duration (p<.001) and P wave dispersion (p<.001) were significantly decreased post-operatively. Additionally, ventricular conduction parameters such as, TPe duration (p<.001), TPe/QT (p=.013) and TPe/QTc (p=.005) ratios were found significantly decreased in ECGs of the patients. BRS as a treatment for macromastia does not only improve posture and mobility of the patients and also have positive impact on cardiac conductions. In patients those had BRS, atrial and ventricular conductions detected by ECG recordings were improved after surgery.

Keywords:

• Breast surgery
• electrocardiography
• P wave
• T wave
• breast
• breast reduction

Acknowledgements

Ethical statement and consent to participate: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent: The patients signed an informed consent form.

Disclosure statement

Authors have no conflict of interest. All authors have read and approved the manuscript.

Data availability statement

The data supporting our findings can be found in the article. Given the strict regulations of our institutional review board, further data of the patients only available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.