October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Breast cancer and breast cancer reconstruction can be challenging to treat, reconstruct, and manage. There are however, many different options available to patients to reconstruct the breast. The mastectomy operation in itself can significantly devascularize the skin of the chest wall. Placing tissue expanders at the time of mastectomy can often lead to cellulitis…
There are many ways to reconstruct the breast following mastectomy. One way to reconstruct the breast which lasts the lifetime of the patient is the deep inferior epigastric artery perforator (DIEP) flap. In DIEP flap breast reconstruction, the skin and fat from the abdomen is harvested along with the deep inferior epigastric artery and vein and transferred to the chest…
Breast reconstruction can be done in an immediate setting at the time of mastectomy or can be accomplished in a delayed setting after mastectomy. When an immediate breast reconstruction with flaps is to be performed it is important that the quality of the mastectomy flaps is considered. During the DIEP flap harvest, the skin and fat from the abdomen is…
Breast cancer reconstruction can be challenging for the Plastic & Reconstructive surgeon as well as the patient. In the patient with “ptotic” breasts, where the nipple areola complex is significantly below the inframammary fold or breast crease, the nipple cannot be safely kept during a mastectomy based on significant impairment in blood supply. In these cases, when the nipple is…
Breast cancer reconstruction is one of the most challenging aspects of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery. The surgery often involves an oncologic component that requires close attention and may require chemotherapy before and/or after surgery that needs to be completed in a timely manner. The DIEP flap uses microvascular soft tissue transplantation to transfer the skin and fat from the abdomen…
Mastectomy Breast Reconstruction is challenging. Mastectomy reconstruction in some patients can involve using the patient’s own tissue rather than implants for breast reconstruction. In the DIEP flap breast reconstruction, the lower abdominal tissue that is usually discarded in a tummy tuck is used to reconstruct the breast. The deep inferior epigastric artery and vein provides the blood supply to the…
Breast cancer reconstruction is challenging. In some patients, who do not wish to have implants, we can reconstruct the breast with the patient’s own body tissue. This is called an autologous breast reconstruction. In the DIEP flap reconstruction, the skin and fat from the abdomen and sometimes a small cuff of rectus muscle is disconnected from the blood supply in…
There are several ways for a Plastic & Reconstructive surgeon to reconstruct the breast. One common way to reconstruct the breast is with an autologous tissue reconstruction of the breast with tissue from the lower abdomen. When we reconstruct the breast with the patient’s own body tissues, we call this an autologous breast reconstruction. In an autologous breast reconstruction, the…
Mastectomy surgery and breast reconstruction are challenging. Depending upon the size of a tumor, the location of the tumor, and patient comorbidities the blood supply to the nipple areola complex can be compromised as well as the mastectomy skin. Occasionally, during a mastectomy, the midline of the chest can be inadvertently crossed, and the reconstruction can result in a symmastia. …
In the ptotic patient and when the patient would like to have an autologous reconstruction, it is helpful to reconstruct the breast with an inverted-T skin pattern. The photograph demonstrates before and after breast reconstruction with a Deep Inferior Epigastric Artery Perforator Flap. The left breast underwent mastopexy reduction to set a new goal position to match. The right breast…
