Overview
- An analysis of more than 20,000 breast reconstruction patients found those with eczema or other atopic skin diseases had higher rates of implant infections, capsular contracture, rupture, and subsequent implant removal or revision over three years.
- In a separate cohort of over 38,000 adults who underwent bone grafting, patients with allergic conditions had elevated risks of infection, osteomyelitis, hardware removal, mechanical loosening, and revision surgery that persisted to at least two years.
- Both retrospective studies used propensity score matching to balance key confounders and were presented Nov. 6 at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology’s annual meeting.
- The findings are slated for publication in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, with lead presentations by Philong Nguyen, BS, for the breast reconstruction study and Joshua Wang, MS, for the bone graft analysis.
- Investigators recommend incorporating the documented risk into preoperative counseling and adopting closer postoperative surveillance for patients with atopic or allergic disease, while emphasizing that the data are associative rather than proof of causation.