We are seeing more women in our office who are choosing to undergo breast reconstruction following mastectomy with their own body tissue. We are also noticing an increasing number of women, who, when appropriate candidates opt to spare their nipple areola complexes following mastectomy. When the skin and breast tissue are removed following mastectomy, the skin and fat from the…
Breast reconstruction following mastectomy can be challenging for both the patient and surgeon. Breast reconstruction can be performed immediately following mastectomy or can be performed in a delayed fashion where a patient undergoes a mastectomy in one procedure and then implant or autologous tissue reconstruction in another procedure. I typically educate patients who undergo reconstruction with tissue expanders or implants…
DIEP flaps are autologous tissue flap reconstructions where the tissue from the lower abdomen is transferred to chest using microsurgical techniques. The benefit of autologous tissue reconstruction is that the look and feel of the breast is natural and the reconstruction is durable. One of the secondary benefits of the DIEP flap breast reconstruction is that as the lower abdominal…
Autologous breast reconstruction involves reconstructing the breast following mastectomy with the patient’s own body tissues. Patients who are candidates for autologous breast reconstruction are patients who have had radiation to the breast skin, those who have had repeated infections or capsular contracture, or those patients who wish to undergo breast reconstruction without implants. Other types of patients who are candidates…
Patients typically ask in consultation what the recovery is like following DIEP or TRAM Flap surgery. I find that patients may have some misconceptions regarding how they are going to look and feel post-operatively. Typically at one week post-operatively, most or all drains have been removed and steri-strips remain in place on the breast reconstruction or on the abdomen. Bruising…
Typically, breast reconstruction with autologous tissue occurs in three stages. For deep inferior epigastric artery perforator flaps, the skin and fat is harvested from the lower abdomen and transferred to the mastectomy site. In the second stage of the reconstruction which occurs at a later date, a symmetry procedure is performed on the reconstructed breast mound. Additionally, at that time,…
