Background · INTRODUCTION · LITERATURE REVIEW Y. A better understanding of the factors associated with regret for making a decision can help surgeons provide more effective preoperative counseling and prevent regret for making a postoperative decision. The current era focuses on patient-reported outcomes, and regret for making a decision is another indicator by which surgeons can and should measure postoperative outcomes. Differences in medical needs create unique psychological challenges, stressing the need for more studies and a better understanding of the topic for other cosmetic and elective surgery procedures.
The experience of regret over the decision can have adverse psychological effects on the patient and can damage the relationship between the patient and the surgeon. More research needs to be done with cohorts of similar studies to better understand the influence that postoperative complications have on regret making decisions in breast reconstruction. Most of the research on regret in plastic surgery revolves around breast reconstruction, and reading this review should point out the lack of sufficient studies on the subject. With the objective of improving preoperative information and reducing the risk of regret making a decision, Luan and collaborators18 conducted a prospective randomized controlled trial that analyzed whether decision-making aid could promote decision-making support and structured guidance for autologous prosthetic breast reconstruction surgery.
and combined. The purpose of this review is to analyze existing research on breast reconstruction with the objective of improving the understanding of regret by decision in the field of plastic surgery and to identify effective tools to reduce its incidence after aesthetic procedures. According to these studies conducted by Zhong et al13 and Cai and Momeni14, better preoperative education can reduce regret for making a decision among patients seeking breast reconstruction. After reviewing the literature, it was discovered that preoperative education, decision-making tools and postoperative complications are the most important factors influencing the decision after surgery.
Compared to medically necessary health care decisions (which are not yet immune to regret for making a decision), elective healthcare decisions are especially vulnerable to retrospective review and regret by both patients and surgeons. Zhong et al13 found that regret was significantly reduced when participants were satisfied with the preoperative advice they had received from their plastic surgeon. The feeling of “oh no” after cosmetic surgery can last anywhere from days to several weeks, especially during the period when you are not allowed to lift more than 5 pounds (your children or a heavy bag), when you are not working, not exercising and you are totally out of your comfort zone and your usual routine.
