Background/Purpose: Large breasts are commonly associated with musculoskeletal symptoms such as neck, shoulder, and back pain, as well as stiff neck, painful brasserie strap grooving, and intertrigo in the inframammary folds.  We aimed to show if there is any correlation among size of breasts, spinal pain, thoracic kyphosis (Cobb) angle and fall risk in a group of women with macromastia.

Methods: Seventy women diagnosed with macromastia included to the study. The complaints, physical examination findings and radiographyc thoracic kyphosis angle were recorded. The “Tetrax Interactive Posturography and Balance System” (Tetrax System, Ramat Gan, Israel) was used for assessment of fall risk.

Results: The mean age of patients was 43.6 ± 11.8 (21-66), and body mass index (BMI) was 30.9 ± 5.1. All patients had painful brasserie strap grooving, and persistent intertrigo in the inframammary folds. The rate of back, neck, shoulder and low back pain were 91.4%, 52.8%, 44.5%, 27.2%, respectively. Duration of musculoskeletal pain was 8.4 ± 5.7 years (1-23). The mean thoracic kyphosis (Cobb) angle was 40.6 ± 12.1 (range, 17-64). In the present study, it was found a very strong correlation between the breast size and BMI (r:0.780, p=0.0001). There was also a moderate correlation between breast size and posturographyc falling index (r:0.300, p=0.048).

Conclusion: Macromastia might be also associated with increased thoracic kyphosis and fall risk as well as musculoskeletal symptoms such as neck, back and shoulder pain.

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/the-correlation-among-macromastia-spinal-pain-thoracic-kyphosis-and-fall-risk/