Breast reconstruction is performed on women who have lost one or both breasts to mastectomy, or who lack breasts due to congenital or developmental abnormalities. The goal of breast reconstruction is to create a breast and nipple that resemble the natural breast as closely as possible in shape, size and position.
FAQs
Types of Breast Reconstruction
The patient's breast surgeon and plastic surgeon should work as a team during reconstruction. It's essential that a patient have reasonable expectations about the results breast reconstruction can provide.
Breast reconstruction is performed in several steps, and there are essentially two types. Which one is used depends on whether there is enough tissue on the wall of the chest to cover or hold an implant.
Implant/Tissue-Expansion Breast Reconstruction
This type of reconstruction involves inserting an implant into the chest after the skin has been stretched enough by an expander to contain it. First, the surgeon inserts a balloon expander beneath the skin and chest muscle where the reconstructed breast will be built. Then, during the next few weeks or months, a saline solution is injected through a tiny valve beneath the skin into the expander. As the expander fills with saline, it stretches the skin and creates a pocket for the implant. The expander is left in place to serve as the implant or replaced with a another one, which can be made of saline or silicone gel. A final procedure reconstructs the areola and nipple. Some patients do not require tissue expansion, which can take up to a year to complete, and begin reconstruction with insertion of the implant.
Autologous-Tissue Breast Reconstruction
This reconstruction technique is used if there is not enough tissue left post-mastectomy to create a new breast using tissue expansion or when a woman does not want implants. Learn more.
Recovery from Breast Reconstruction
Recovery varies widely based upon the type of procedure used for breast reconstruction, as well as whether reconstruction immediately follows mastectomy.
Hospital stays range from one to six days. Patients are tired and sore for one to two weeks, and recovery takes three to six weeks. Compression garments are typically worn, and stitches are taken out in a week to 10 days. A surgical drain may be left in place to prevent a buildup of fluid in the reconstructed breast and can be removed within one or two weeks.
Results: What To Expect
A reconstructed breast will not look the same as the original breast. And although a surgeon attempts to match the size, shape, position and other attributes of the remaining breast, an exact match is not possible. To achieve symmetry, the remaining breast may be operated on to make it bigger or smaller, or to lift it.
In addition to not looking the same as the original, a reconstructed breast will have little sensation, although greater sensation may be expected when autologous tissue rather than an implant is used.
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