To rebuild the breast mound after a mastectomy, the selection is both implant reconstruction or tissue (flap) reconstruction. Which of those procedures you and your physician choose is dependent upon your physique sort, breast measurement, and desire.
Implant Reconstruction
Implant reconstruction may be achieved concurrently a mastectomy (referred to as direct to implant), nevertheless it might not be the best methodology. “The revision charge of direct to implant is increased than if you happen to do the process in two levels,” says Butler. That’s as a result of the pores and skin over the breast could get confused or injured throughout a mastectomy. “If I then place a big implant into that pores and skin pocket, I’m stressing the pores and skin much more, which might result in issues equivalent to implant extrusion [when the implant pushes through the skin] or an infection.”
As a substitute, the process is often achieved in levels. First, the surgeon locations a tissue expander underneath the pores and skin on the time of the mastectomy. “Then we inflate the tissue expander, type of like inflating a balloon, each few weeks within the workplace till we attain the proper measurement. As soon as we attain the proper measurement, then we carry the affected person again for a small outpatient process the place we take away the tissue expander and place the implant,” says Lyle Leipziger, MD, chief of cosmetic surgery at North Shore College Hospital and Lengthy Island Jewish Medical Heart in New York.
Flap Reconstruction
One benefit to flap reconstruction is that it makes use of your personal tissue as an alternative of a overseas implant. “A second, smaller surgical procedure is usually wanted to regulate the tissue and form the breast,” Dr. Colwell says.
Nipple and Areola Reconstruction
With a mastectomy, normally, the surgeon is ready to protect the pores and skin of the breast and solely removes the tissue beneath. “It’s usually additionally potential to maintain the nipple of the breast in a nipple-sparing mastectomy process,” says Colwell.
