The CoBRA Score - "Comprehensive Breast Reconstruction Assessment Score" - An Easy, Accessible and Reproducible scoring system for Aesthetic Assessment for Reconstructed Breast

Breast reconstruction following mastectomy is viewed not only as a procedure to restore a woman?s physical well - being but also has a major bearing on her mental and emotional health. There are numerous methods of reconstruction of the breast however; there is a paucity of uniform aesthetic evaluation methods. Methods: In this paper we present a multi - tier aesthetic evaluation of the breast through involvement of both the Physician and Patient herself. Assessment methods included anthropometry, subjective parameter analysis by a Medical Personnel and patient both and Linear Analogue Scale. Physician evaluation and anthropometric measurements were done by a doctor who was not a part of the treating team. Certain uniform guidelines were followed for ease and uniformity of gauging subjective parameters. We further converted these results and ratings given by patients and physician into scores and reached a cumulative number by adding individual scores. In our opinion it is the only evaluation of such kind where each result is represented by a score rather than ambiguous terms of good or fair. We call this the Comprehensive breast reconstruction assessment (CoBRA) score. Hence two sets of numeric scores were determined for all patients which represented their satisfaction with the reconstructive surgery and the physician?s assessment of the result separately and overall grading of the result when added.