Breast Cancer Surgery- Breast Reconstruction
Post date: September 10th, 2006Although it’s not a perfect method, surgery is the only way of dealing with breast cancer. It’s undeniable that it has some major downsides, including not being 100% effective and having negative psychological and aesthetical effects on the patient, but it’s the best that medicine can offer as of now. And since the method itself cannot be (yet) replaced, efforts have been put into reducing these negative effects and avoiding the problems they cause. If the tumor is larger and if it is discovered in a later stage, the patient’s entire breast must be removed (process called mastectomy, as opposed to lumpectomy – where only the small cancerous lump is removed) which leaves her with some serious aesthetical problems, which in turn cause the psychological ones. Fortunately, science and medicine have done wonders in this direction in the last few decades, allowing post-surgery breast reconstruction to be a reality.
Before going any further in the subject, it’s important to specify that in some cases, breast reconstruction cannot be performed immediately after the surgery. The reasons are multiple and they include the fact that breast cancer surgery is not always effective from the first time. This means that although the tumor was removed, there might still be cancerous cells in the area with the risk of spreading in the adjacent tissue and a second operation is required, in case the area that is still affected is larger. If it’s not as large as to require a second operation, these cells can be destroyed with treatments such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, but these take time, making breast reconstruction impossible during the treatment.
There are two main breast reconstruction methods that are commonly used today: the use of a tissue expander in combination with breast implants and flap reconstruction. The first one is probably the more common of the two, although it requires more time to be effective. What the surgeon does in this case is insert a temporary implant beneath the chest wall, where the mastectomy operation took place and periodically injects saline solutions to slowly expand the overlaying tissue. The rate at which the solution is injected depends on several factors, ranging over a few weeks or months. In any case, it’s a slower but dependable solution. After the breast has been stretched to the required size, the temporary implant is replaced by a normal silicone one and the nipple and areola are reconstructed separately in a final surgical intervention.
The second method, called flap reconstruction, requires the surgeon to use the tissue from another part of the patient’s body (from larger body areas such as the back, buttocks, abdomen and so forth) in order to reconstruct the breast. Although a faster method than the one using the tissue expander, flap reconstruction may not have the same efficiency. Flap reconstruction can recreate the look and feel of the skin prior to the mastectomy, although a small visible difference is unavoidable. Implants are used for the inner part of the breast, the process being almost identical to that used in breast augmentation. Therefore, even if the operation succeeds, the patient will still be vulnerable to the same problems and risks involved in breast augmentation.
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