Institution: Federal University of Uberlandia
Introduction: Partial (oncoplasty) or total breast reconstructions may be performed by different medical specialties, and may vary according to the global region. Purpose: This systematic review aimed to providethe evolution of the scientific publication patterns on oncoplastyand breast reconstruction over the time. Material and Methods: Studies, from 1980 to 2015 were searched at the PubMed database, with the following terms: “reconstructive breast cancer surgery” and “oncoplastic breast cancer”. In total, 2,357 abstracts were retrieved. Papers were classified according to the design of the study, type of reconstruction, specialty and mainland of the first author. 977 papers were excluded since they were not related to the subject, or because they were not originalresearch or they had no abstract. Therefore, 1,380 citations met the inclusion criteria. Results: In 54 (3.9%) papers, the specialty of the first author was not mentioned. There were 943 (71.2%) papers written by plastic surgeons, 365 (27.6%) by breast surgeons, and 16 (1.2%) by radiologists. The proportion of the authors’ specialties is stable over the time for plastic and breast surgeons, but it is increasing more for radiologists (p<0.01). There was a steady increase in publications on breast reconstructions over the years (p<0.01). Most of the articles 1,126 (81.7%) were on total reconstructions, but studies on oncoplasty are increasing significantly more recently (p<0.01). Most of the studies are retrospective cohorts (48.1%) and non systematic reviews (22.8%), but there was an improvement in the levels of evidence of the papers over the time, specially due to the recent higher increment in publications of randomizes trials and systematic reviews (p<0.01). Most of the publications came from North America (44.3%) and Europe (41.4%), but there is a higher increase in publications from South and Central America and Oceania recently (p<0.01). The proportion ofplastic/breast surgeonsamong the authors is much bigger in North America (n=518, 87.5%), followed by Asia (n=78, 66.1%), Europe (n=317, 59.6%), Africa (n=10, 55.6%), Oceania (n=14, 50%), and South/Central America (n=5, 29.4%) (p<0.01). Plastic surgeons publish more about total breast reconstructions (n=889, 81.9%) and breast surgeons publish more about oncoplasty (n=169, 75.8%) (p<0.01). Conclusion: Different growth patterns for medical specialties, geographic regions and techniques help understand the global scenario and trends.
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