Reply: Where Do We Look? Assessing Gaze Patterns in Breast Reconstructive Surgery with Eye-Tracking Technology

Le résumé fourni par la source

Sir: We thank the authors for their interest in our article entitled “Where Do We Look? Assessing Gaze Patterns in Breast Reconstructive Surgery with Eye-Tracking Technology.”1 We agree that including demographic information (e.g., sex, age, ethnicity) on the 29 subjects could reveal differences in the aesthetic preferences between subgroups. However, in this study, we collected the objective gaze data from the 29 subjects only as they viewed the images. We did not collect data regarding their subjective aesthetic preferences, as the primary aim of this study was to validate the use of eye-tracking technology. As such, we do not have the ability to see whether there are differences in aesthetic preferences, such as preferences for areola size, based on the subject’s ethnicity. Furthermore, given the relatively small sample size of 29 subjects, this study is likely not powered to see differences in these subgroups. The subjective aesthetic preferences that were described were collected from two separate expert reviewers, both of whom were male. These reviewers were asked to identify the worst appearing feature of the images; given that the images were of postmastectomy reconstruction, they focused their attention on scarring and other surgical artifacts. Neither of the two reviewers commented on the size of the areola or of the breasts in any of the images. In a future study with a larger sample of reviewers who provide their aesthetic preferences, we agree that subgroup analysis by demographics could be interesting. We thank Azuelos et al. for highlighting the cited study that demonstrated a difference between patient and surgeon aesthetic preferences. In the Discussion section of our study, we also discuss the possibility of “Collecting gaze data from women who have undergone mastectomy and breast reconstruction [to] reveal differences in aesthetic priorities and preferences between patients, surgeons, and laypersons.” We agree that this would make for an interesting future study using the eye-tracking technology. We appreciate the opportunity to respond to the Letter to the Editor regarding our article, and believe that eye-tracking technology is a tool that has great potential for future study in our specialty. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work was supported by the Stanford School of Medicine, MedScholars Research Program. The authors thank the Tobii Group for the generous use of their eye-tracking hardware and software for this study. DISCLOSURE None of the authors has a financial interest to declare in relation to the content of this communication. Lawrence Z. Cai, M.D.Stanford School of Medicine John A. M. Paro, M.D.Gordon K. Lee, M.D.Rahim S. Nazerali, M.D.Division of Plastic and Reconstructive SurgeryStanford UniversityPalo Alto, Calif.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.