Patient - Breast Reconstruction

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Click on an image below to see a larger version.

Before

This patient was diagnosed with cancer of the right breast. Because of a strong family history of breast cancer, she elected to have bilateral mastectomies. I placed tissue expanders on both sides at the time of her surgery. She actually had a positive margin for cancer and had to be taken back to surgery to remove more breast tissue a couple of weeks later. This did not affect her reconstruction. 

After

She had an uneventful expansion process and was returned to surgery five months later to replace the expanders with permanent silicone gel implants. These are Mentor round, smooth, high profile gel implants. The left is 550 cc and the right is 450 cc. A few months later, her reconstruction was completed with nipple/areola reconstruction using a flap from the breast for the nipple and a graft from her inner thigh for the areola. She is shown 2 months after this surgery. You can see the difference in pigment between the chest skin and the thigh skin. I could have tattooed a little color in the nipple to better match the areola but she was happy and did not feel she needed to do this. Her breasts, while not perfect, are very soft and she fills her clothing well. I never got her cup size but would guess she is a C/D. Before surgery she said she wore a D cup.