Patient - Breast Reconstruction

« Return To Breast Reconstruction

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Before

This 44 year old woman presented for breast reconstruction after being diagnosed with cancer in her left breast. She chose to undergo a bilateral mastectomy with immediate reconstruction. I felt she would be a good candidate for insertion of tissue expanders at the time of her mastectomies and replacing these later with permanent silicone gel implants. She is shown before surgery. 

After

She is shown here 11 months after her first surgery. After her mastectomies, she underwent two additional procedures. One to replace her expanders with silicone gel implants. These were Allergan Style 410, highly cohesive (gummy bear) anatomically shaped, textured gel implants, 655 cc. The other was for bilateral nipple/areola reconstruction using small skin flaps for the nipples and skin grafts from her upper, inner thighs for the areolae. Four years later, she returned due to the recent stories about breast lymphoma associated with Allergan texture implants. Her result looked as you see it here. Her bra size is a C/D cup.  I reassured her that all was well and recommended she return periodically for a routine checkup, nothing more. Her lifetime risk for implant associated lymphoma is 1 in 3000. This is 300 times less than the normal risk for any woman of getting breast cancer.