Breast Reconstruction after Cancer

What is Breast Reconstruction?

 Women undergoing medical intervention in breast cancer may choose breast reconstructing surgery to reconstruct their breast form and look. The breast reconstruction procedure involves creating a new mound or shape of the breast by surgery. The entire breast or a part of the breast may be removed. The new breast can be formed by using implants or the patient’s own tissues, generally on the back or lower abdomen, from another part of the body.

 What are the symptoms leading to the doctor’s recommendation – Breast Reconstruction?

• Saggy Breasts
• Aesthetic needs due to either small or large breasts
• Post breasts removal due to breast cancer.

 Evaluations for Breast Reconstruction

• Blood tests
• CT scan
• Anesthesia clearance
• Physical Examination

Breast Reconstruction Procedure 

Breast Reconstruction options:

• Implants – A surgeon inserts silicone or saline implants below the skin or muscle instead of the prior breast tissue when reconstruction is done using implants in the breast. The surgeon positions a tissue expander below the skin of the breast or pectoralis muscles in the first phase. The expander is used as a provisional saline implant to extend the remaining tissue progressively. Post-surgery, the surgeon injects sterile saline or saltwater into the tissue expander every week via the skin. The balloon develops slowly, extending the overlying skin and muscle till the breast gets a comfortable size. If the breast tissues cure and the surgeon add the tissue expander with enough saline in preparing for implants, the second surgery is carried out to add the implants. The surgeon takes and substitutes the expanders of the tissue for silicone or saline implants.
• Skin Flap Surgery – The surgeon requires tissues from any other part of the body with the skin flap procedure and transfers them to the chest to reconstruct the breast. The tissue is generally removed from the abdomen by the surgeon. It could moreover emerge from elsewhere, like the buttock, back or thigh. In a free flap procedure, the tissue and blood vessels that provide circulation for positioning in the breast are removed entirely by the surgeon. The blood vessels are stitched on the planned positioning site into other blood vessels in the chest. The blood vessels are quite tiny, so a microscope is used by the surgeon to sew them in a procedure known as microsurgery. A surgeon does not fully remove transplanted tissue from the blood vessels during pedicle flap surgery. Rather, the tissue is connected to the body and the surgeon rotates that to the breast. For pedicle flap surgery, a surgeon generally uses tissue from his abdomen or back.

Estimated Costs of Breast Reconstruction in India: