The Impact of Surgical Wound Dehiscence on Body Image

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To identify changes in body image in patients with surgical wound dehiscence. DESIGN AND SETTING: This cross-sectional, descriptive, analytical study was conducted in a university hospital and nursing care center in Brazil. PATIENTS AND INTERVENTION: Sixty-one adult surgical patients of both genders from different inpatient wards or receiving outpatient care were selected. Forty-one participants had surgical wound dehiscence, and 20 had achieved complete wound healing (controls). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The Body Dysmorphic Disorder Examination (BDDE), Body Investment Scale (BIS), and a questionnaire assessing clinical and sociodemographic characteristics of patients were used for data collection. MAIN RESULTS: Surgical wound dehiscence defects were 0.5 to 30 cm in length, located on the arms, legs, and chest. They were significantly associated with being white (P = .048), number of children (P = .024), and presence of comorbid conditions (P = .01). Overall, men reported higher BIS scores (positive feelings about the body) than women (P = .035). Patients with wound dehiscence had higher BDDE scores (negative body image) than controls (P = .013). The BDDE scores were associated with presence of surgical wound dehiscence (P = .013), number of children (P = .009), and wound length (P = .02). There were significant correlations between BIS scores in men with wound dehiscence (P = .042), number of children (P < .001), and BDDE scores (P < .001) and between BDDE scores and number of children (P = .031), wound length (P = .028), and BIS scores (P < .001). CONCLUSION: Surgical wound dehiscence had a negative impact on body image.

Wound Dehiscence Following Upper Blepharoplasty: A Review of 2,376 Cases

“…Wound dehiscence has been shown to induce a direct negative self-image, 5 and so dedicated study and risk factor assessment to aid in prevention is warranted. There are limited studies in the literature specifically assessing wound dehiscence after blepharoplasty, with reported incidence ranging from 0.3% to 12.5%.…”

“…4 Wound dehiscence has been found to negatively impact scar cosmesis and self-confidence. 5 Therefore, it is productive to identify risk factors that can lead to wound dehiscence following this commonly performed oculoplastic surgery. The authors performed a large-scale review of patients who underwent upper blepharoplasty to evaluate the rate of wound dehiscence, to assess risk factors, and to analyze management outcomes.…”

Evidence of Validity, Invariance, and Reliability of the Body Image Dimension in the Body Investment Scale: A Study in Spanish University Students

“…Previous research has established connections between body investment factors and suicide risk, distinguishing between suicidal and non-suicidal individuals [2][3][4], the onset of depressive symptoms [5], non-suicidal self-injury behaviors [6], and acting as a mediator between emotion dysregulation and gender dysphoria in adolescents [7]. Additionally, it has been associated with physical health conditions; studies post-surgery have indicated that wound dehiscence negatively impacts body investment [8].…”

“…However, this seminal work used an orthogonal rotation and a factorial structure, which has only been partially supported in posterior validation studies [2] and adaptations to other languages, such as Portuguese [9,10] or Spanish [11], where the factors were altered and correlated (oblique rotation), and some items covaried in models with the best fit. Moreover, other empirical studies used modified versions of the instrument with different structures of the subscales [8,12], whereas others have adapted the instrument to different languages based on their own translation-back-translation process [13][14][15] without exploring any psychometric properties of the adaptation. These factors make the obtained results opaque and difficult to compare with the results of other populations.…”