Breast Reconstruction, Tucson, Az*

This is a 59 year old woman from Tucson, Arizona that was diagnosed with left breast cancer. She was referred to Rao Plastic Surgery by her breast surgeon to discuss her reconstruction options for after her mastectomy (breast removal) surgery. She was planning on undergoing a left mastectomy and a prophylactic right mastectomy. Her oncologist was not anticipating a need for postoperative radiation. Due to the location of her cancer and the size of her tumor her breast surgeon felt she was a candidate for nipple sparing mastectomies. I felt that she was a good candidate for an implant based reconstruction. In the same setting as her nipple sparing mastectomies I placed tissue expanders behind her muscle and used alloderm to provide total coverage over the expander. She tolerated the surgery well. I began her expansion after her incisions had healed at 2 weeks. She underwent weekly expansions in the office setting until she reached 500 cc. After 6 weeks from her last expansion she went back to surgery and I removed her expanders and placed 500 cc smooth round silicone breast implants. In addition to placement of breast implants, I also performed liposuction removing some abdominal fat. The harvested fat from liposuction was then utilized for fat grafting to the bilateral breasts to improve the shape and contour of her breasts. She is now seven months out from her surgery and is extremely pleased with the results of her reconstruction.