Aesthetic Treatment After Breast Cancer: “A New Breast” (Breast Reconstruction)
Breast cancer is a very serious risk that threatens women. Every woman should be aware of this and should do her regular check-ups both by herself and with a doctor. Remember, one in eight women gets breast cancer. This is a very, very high number. Breast cancer is easily treatable if detected early. The problem arises in cases where it is delayed.
An oncologist (cancer specialist) and a general surgeon do breast cancer together. If the breast needs to be removed and the patient wants to replace the lost breast with a new one, plastic surgeons step in.
What must be emphasized here is that breast cancer is a serious disease and that breast reconstruction is secondary. The head of the treatment team is the oncologist and general surgeon, and your plastic surgeon can only assist you in a way that does not interfere with their treatment.
The number of patients who want to have their breasts re-done after breast cancer is very low in Turkey. This surgery is one of the few plastic surgery surgeries that are most frequently performed in America and Europe. Nor can I explain why there is such a lack of demand. These surgeries are actually so successful that many women’s breasts are better than they were before the surgery.
HOW IS A NEW BREAST MADE?
There are different techniques.
1. A prosthesis is placed under the removed breast skin. This prosthesis is placed empty. One week later, the prosthesis is started to be inflated with saline and the desired color is brought. Then the other breast is operated to equalize this breast and the nipple is made.
2. In the lower abdomen, a new breast is made by using the skin and adipose tissue taken in the abdominoplasty operation. Then, both the nipple is made and the other breast is adapted to this shape if necessary.
There are different ways to carry the skin of the lower abdomen, one of them is to lift the skin together with the muscles in the midline, and the other is to connect the veins of the skin to the large veins in the armpit with the micro-surgical technique.
3. Carrying skin from the hip or back with micro-surgery method.
Both your condition and your doctor’s preferences determine which technique will be used. For example, if the skin on your abdomen is very saggy and deeply cracked, it may not be suitable for breast formation. Or if you have had a major abdominal surgery before, this area may not be used again. But there will always be a preferred technique.
WHEN IS IT SUITABLE?
Your oncologist and general surgeon will decide this completely. As I said at the beginning, the plastic surgeon should act according to the decisions made by this team.
There are two possibilities here. The breast is either made immediately in the surgery where the breast is removed, or after all treatments are finished. If the disease is advanced, surgery is usually postponed.
