Patient - Breast Reconstruction

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Click on an image below to see a larger version.

Before

This 47 year old lady was diagnosed with invasive lobular cancer of her left breast. Like many women today, she decided to have both breasts removed to maximally reduce her future risk of breast cancer. Her surgeon felt she was a good candidate for nipple-sparing mastectomies, which remove only the breast tissue, leaving all of the skin, nipples, and areolae. This can provide for a very nice reconstruction. Her small (B cup) and non-saggy breasts make her situation a good one for this procedure.

After

At the time of her mastectomies, I placed bilateral smooth tissue expanders. Four months later, I replaced these with a pair of 490 cc Mentor MemoryGel smooth, round, moderate plus profile gel implants. She is shown four months after this. Her breasts are soft and her scars are fading nicely. Her new bra size is a C/D cup. She has a bit more fullness than ideal in the upper poles. Some patients like this. It could have been avoided with anatomically contoured implants but all of those are textured and many women opt out of textured implants due to concerns over possible lymphoma of the breasts later in life. The risk of this condition is very, very low with textured implants. It is essentially zero with smooth ones.