Dr. Self has over 30 years of experience in breast reconstruction surgery. He trained with some of the founding fathers of breast reconstruction at the Mayo Clinic and has vast experience of his own. He has the ability to provide his patients with multiple breast reconstruction options to achieve the most natural result possible. He takes time to explain these options to the patient and her family, in order to achieve the best outcome after a mastectomy or lumpectomy surgery for breast cancer. These can be challenging surgeries, and you want someone with vast experience to walk you through your post-operative options. Dr. Self has that experience.
There are two basic techniques for reconstruction: autologous reconstruction and prosthetic reconstruction. Autologous reconstruction uses the patient’s own tissue to reconstruct the breast. Prosthetic reconstruction uses implants to reconstruct the breast.
Autologous reconstruction requires the transfer of skin and fat from a donor site on the body to the chest. This tissue is often taken from the abdomen, and an abdominoplasty can be incorporated into the procedure. The back, buttocks, and thighs can also provide areas from which to harvest the skin and fat necessary to create breasts. Conventional tissue transfer can be done in two ways: pedicled flaps or free flaps. These procedures are more complex than implant reconstructions, and therefore the recovery time is longer and more intense.
Prosthetic/Implant reconstruction uses traditional implants to reconstruct the breast. At the time of mastectomies, tissue expander(s) are placed. For the next few months, the patient will come into the office to have the expanders filled. Expander fills involve injecting a volume of saline into an expander in the breast pocket over the course of several appointments. This series of procedures stretches the breast pocket to the desired size to prepare for the implant to be placed. Because of the less complex nature of this reconstruction, the recovery from surgery is less intensive and shorter than more complex methods that require a donor site.
Both procedures have pros and cons, and Dr. Self can discuss options and suggest the best route for you to take. Whether an asymmetry needs to be corrected in a single breast, or both breasts need to be reconstructed entirely, Dr. Self can provide you the best result.