Breast reconstruction is the rebuilding of a breast, usually in women. It involves using autologous tissue or prosthetic material to construct a natural-looking breast.

Often this includes the reformation of a natural-looking areola and nipple. This procedure involves the use of implants or relocated flaps of the patient's own tissue.

Overview

The primary part of the procedure is often be carried out immediately following the mastectomy. As with many other surgeries, those with signifigant medical comorbidities (high blood pressure, obese, diabetis) individuals who smoke are higher-risk candidates. Surgeons may choose to perform delayed reconstruction to decrease this risk. Patients expected to receive external beam radiation as part of their adjuvant treatment are also commonly considered for delayed autologous reconstruction due to siginifigantly higher complication rates with tissue expander-implant techniques in those patients.

Breast reconstruction is a large undertaking that usually takes multiple operations. Sometimes these follow-up surgeries are spread out over weeks or months. If an implant is used, the individual runs the same risks and complications as those who use them for breast augmentation but has higher rates of capsular contracture (tightening or hardening of the scar tissue around the implant) and revisional surgeries.

Techniques

There are many methods for breast reconstruction. The two most common are:

• Tissue Expander - Breast implants This is the most common technique used in worldwide. The surgeon inserts a tissue expander, a temporary silastic implant, beneath the pectoralis major muscle of the chest wall and periodically, over weeks or months, injects a saline solution to slowly expand the overlaying tissue (see tissue expansion). Once the expander has reached an acceptable size, it may be removed and replaced with a more permanent implant. Reconstruction of the areola and nipple are performed in a separate operation after the skin has stretched to its final size.

• Flap reconstruction The second most common procedure uses tissue from other parts of the patient's body, such as the back, buttocks, thigh or abdomen. This procedure may be performed by leaving the donor tissue connected to the original site to retain its blood supply (the vessels are tunnelled beneath the skin surface to the new site) or it may be cut off and new blood supply may be connected.

o The latissimus dorsi muscle flap is the donor tissue available on the back. It is a large flat muscle which can be employed without significant loss of function. It can be moved into the breast defect still attached to its blood supply under the arm pit (axilla). A latissimus flap is usually used to recruit soft-tissue coverage over an underlying implant. Enough volume can be recruited occasionally to reconstruct small breasts without an implant.

o Abdominal flaps The abdominal flap for breast reconstruction is the TRAM flap or its technically distinct variants the DIEP/SIEP flaps. Both use the abdominal tissue between the umbilicus and the pubis. The DIEP and free-TRAM flaps require advanced microsurgical technique and are less common as a result. Both can provide enough tissue to reconstruct large breasts. The contour of the lower abdomen is reliably improved by these procedures which remove the same tissue as an abdominoplasty (tummy tuck.) TRAM flap procedures may weaken the abdominal muscles, but are usually tolerated well in most patients. To prevent muscle weakness and incisional hernias, the portion of abdominal wall exposed by reflection of the rectus abdominis muscle may be strengthened by a piece of surgical mesh placed over the defect and sutured in place. The DIEP (deep inferior epigastric perforator flap) and SIEP (superficial inferior epigastric perforator flap) require precise disection of small perforating vessels through the rectus muscle, and purport the advantage of less weakening of the abdominal wall.