Entwicklung eines neuen Fragebogens zur Qualitätssicherung der Mammareduktionsplastik - der MRP-Bogen

Objective: Reduction mammaplasty is an operative procedure performed for complex indications such as neck and upper back pain, social and emotional problems. Standardized questionnaires often fail to specifically evaluate the benefit of reduction mammaplasty on the patients' quality of life. As continuous quality assessment is essential for surgical quality control, we developed a new questionnaire for the evaluation of quality of life after reduction mammaplasty. Material and Methods: In a prestudy the applicability of standardized questionnaires on quality of life (SF-12 quality of life sheet) was tested, followed by a semi-structured interview to detect important aspects that are not reflected in the standardized questionnaire. The newly designed questionnaire was tested in a cross-sectional study of 62 patients who underwent reduction mammaplasty. It consists of 29 questions concerning patients' characteristics, symptoms and quality of life of the patients before and after surgery and their postoperative satisfaction. Results: The new questionnaire showed a high participation rate (>95% of the patients completed the questionnaire) and only a low rate of missing answers (<1.6% unanswered questions). From the clinical point of view formal plausibility and validity of its content were evident. Conclusion: We are convinced that the new MRP questionnaire is a much better tool to specifically evaluate the patient's condition before and after reduction mammaplasty and is therefore essential for the quality control of this surgical procedure.