Table 2.
One-Year Complication Rates for Patients Receiving Brachytherapy and Whole-Breast Irradiation
| Complication | Brachytherapy (n = 2,980) |
Whole-Breast Irradiation (n = 16,010) |
P* | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. of Patients | % | No. of Patients | % | ||
| Any complication | 1,021 | 34.3 | 4,370 | 27.3 | < .001 |
| Wound and skin complications | 937 | 31.4 | 3,834 | 24.0 | < .001 |
| Wound complication/damage to skeletal muscle, connective tissue, bone | 608 | 20.4 | 2,037 | 12.7 | < .001 |
| Fat necrosis | 203 | 6.8 | 923 | 5.8 | .03 |
| Unspecified complication | 12 | 0.4 | 38 | 0.2 | .11 |
| Radiation complication | 20 | 0.7 | 106 | 0.7 | .96 |
| Infection | 358 | 12.0 | 1,639 | 10.2 | .004 |
| Severe infection | 30 | 1.0 | 224 | 1.4 | .09 |
| Deep-tissue complications | 135 | 4.5 | 792 | 5.0 | .33 |
| Blood vessel injury† | 0 | 0.0 | < 11 | < 0.1 | .29 |
| Pericarditis† | < 11 | < 0.4 | 24 | 0.1 | .51 |
| Lung injury | 44 | 1.5 | 327 | 2.0 | .04 |
| Nerve damage | 64 | 2.1 | 369 | 2.3 | .60 |
| Rib fracture | 27 | 0.9 | 92 | 0.6 | .04 |
NOTE. Data are restricted to the 18,990 patients for whom we had 1 full year of claims after breast-conserving surgery.
*
P value is for χ2 test between each complication and type of radiation received.
†
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services prohibit the publication of cell sizes < 11.