A systematic review of patient regret after surgery

Used in 2 entries

For each citing entry, the verbatim excerpt and Likelier's calculation notes (how the source's number was converted to the lifetime-probability framing) are shown below. Click through to read the full claim ledger.

1. [1] Cosmetic surgery Decision · action side

   Statistic

   Regret after elective plastic surgery ranges from 5–33%; breast augmentation 5.1–9.1%, body contouring 10.82–33.3%

   “"Regret after elective plastic surgery operations is significantly higher compared to gender-affirming surgery. The percentage of patients reporting regret ranged from 0 to 47.1% in breast reconstruction, 5.1–9.1% in breast augmentation, and 10.82–33.3% in body contouring."”

   Calculation notes

   2024 AJS systematic review of patient regret across surgical subspecialties. Reported ranges for cosmetic procedures: breast augmentation 5.1–9.1%, body contouring 10.82–33.3%. The review provides the most comprehensive cross-specialty data but does not compute a weighted average across procedures. We use ~10% as a conservative editorial estimate sitting at the lower-middle of the cosmetic (non-reconstructive) range — not a computed midpoint — acknowledging the enormous variance by procedure type. This review reports regret rates only and does not analyze predictors or drivers of regret; the predictor finding below (preoperative education, decisional tools, postoperative complications) comes from the companion PMC 2023 source only, not from this review.
   

   Source date: 2024-04-30 · Accessed: 2026-07-07

2. [2] Breast augmentation Decision · action side

   Statistic

   Regret after breast augmentation: 5.1–9.1%

   “"Regret after elective plastic surgery operations is significantly higher compared to gender-affirming surgery. The percentage of patients reporting regret ranged from 0 to 47.1% in breast reconstruction, 5.1–9.1% in breast augmentation, and 10.82–33.3% in body contouring."”

   Calculation notes

   2024 AJS systematic review of patient regret across surgical subspecialties. Breast augmentation-specific subrange: 5.1–9.1%. We use 7% as the approximate midpoint. This is the most procedure-specific regret figure available in the peer-reviewed literature for cosmetic breast augmentation.
   

   Source date: 2024-04-30 · Accessed: 2026-05-10