Delayed Reconstruction

Delayed Breast Reconstruction
is performed weeks, months or years after your mastectomy. Choosing this option depends upon several different factors:

• Your immediate situation
• Your breast shape and size
• Your lifestyle
• Your aesthetic goals
• The availability of a reconstructive breast surgeon in the area where you live

The best candidates for reconstruction are typically women with small or medium sized breasts.

It can be either one stage or two stage surgical procedure. A single stage reconstruction surgery may involve the placement of a breast implant or an expander/mammary. The two-stage procedure typically involves a tissue expander, which will be followed by delayed reconstruction several months later with
an implant.

The benefit to delayed reconstruction is that it affords you the opportunity to delay your decision and surgery until your other treatments, such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy, are complete. This is ideal option if you feel you need more time to make a decision.

There are multiple reconstruction options available.
Generally with mastectomies, I prefer TRAM flap procedure for the best results. However, I often use the latissimus flap procedure with an expander or implant. There may be however, conditions that require the use of the third reconstruction option, the tissue expander procedure.

Once I determine the type of mastectomy you have had, the stage of your cancer and the follow-up care you will require, I will discuss what options you have available to you. Together, you and I will develop a solution that works best given your unique situation.

Please click on the links below to view before and after photos.

• Tram Flap Procedure Pictures

• Latissimus Flap Procedure Pictures

• Tissue Expander Procedure Pictures

Tram Flap Procedure

The immediate island TRAM flap procedure is a reconstruction method using your own body tissue. The skin, tissue and rectus muscle is taken from the abdomen and tunneled into the breast area to create the breast mound.
Latissimus Flap Procedure

The tissue that is relocated is referred to as a flap. It is this tissue that is used to create the breast mound. This method gives a nice aesthetic result when combined with a skin-sparing mastectomy.

The primary advantage of the TRAM flap procedure is a natural looking and natural feeling breast created from your own tissue. Although TRAM surgery is more extensive, it prevents you from future surgeries associated with breast implant maintenance.

The immediate island latissimus flap procedure is a method of reconstruction that uses your own body tissue, together with an expander or implant. The tissue that is relocated is referred to as a flap. Skin, tissue and latissimus dorsi muscle are taken from the back and tunneled below the skin into the breast area to create the breast mound along with an implant.

This method gives a nice aesthetic result when combined with a skin-sparing mastectomy. Since the immediate island latissimus dorsi flap is smaller and thinner than the TRAM flap, the addition of an implant provides the ideal solution for the replacement of additional breast tissue that is removed at the time of your mastectomy.

Tissue Expander Procedure

The tissue expander procedure is a method using a tissue expander and an implant. It is a temporary implant with a valve that is placed under the skin and muscle and filled externally. It is gradually inflated with saline over a period of weeks or months, depending on the length of time needed to stretch the skin. Once the skin is sufficiently stretched, another surgery is performed to remove the expander and replace it with a breast implant.

                            Lumpectomy or Partial Mastectomy Reconstruction