Patient - Breast Reconstruction

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Before

This patient had a very strong family history of breast cancer at a young age and was very concerned about her future cancer risk. She desired prophylactic (preventitive) mastectomies with reconstruction to reduce this risk. Preventitive mastectomy does not eliminate the risk of breast cancer but does reduce it significantly. She had other medical issues that complicated her situation, including the need to be on blood thinners and breasts that were large and sagging. I planned to do her mastectomies using a breast reduction type incision with grafting of her nipple/areola complexes to salvage them. The operation was done in two stages. The first removed the breast tissue and grafted the nipples along with placement of a tissue expander. The second replaced the expander with a permanent silicone gel implant. Her preoperative photos are shown. 

After

She did beautifully with the surgery. Her implants are 525cc Mentor MemoryShape medium height, moderate plus profile implants. These are popularly known as "gummy bear" implants because the silicone gel is more formed and the implants can actually be cut in half without any change to them. She has an unusual indentation under the left breast that may be due to some fat necrosis. This could be corrected with some fat grafting but she is happy and does not desire any further work to revise her breasts. Her breasts are soft and feel very natural.