In this Consultant Q&A video, Mr Martin Jones, a Consultant Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, addresses questions relating to breast reconstruction surgery and aesthetic breast surgery.
Learn more about free flap surgery for breast reconstruction and how it can be performed at the same time as a mastectomy. The video also covers who suitable candidates are for breast uplift (mastopexy) and breast reduction surgeries, as well as explaining the condition called tuberous breast syndrome, and the surgical options.
Q1. What is free flap surgery for breast reconstruction?
A. Breast reconstruction is an integral part of a patient's treatment for breast cancer. The gold standard method is to use a woman's tissue principally from her tummy or from her thighs to reconstruct the breast. This can be done at the same time as the mastectomy, or it can be done as a delayed procedure - so the mastectomy is done first, and then she'll have some treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and then when that's settled, a year after, we can do the reconstruction as a delayed procedure.
The reconstruction itself can take anywhere between four and ten hours surgically and the woman will stay in hospital between one and four days. Recovery can take anywhere up to three months where you are back to your index sport, and back to work, but usually, the majority of women will be back to work around about eight weeks, they also can drive after about three weeks.
Q2. Who benefits from breast reductions and breast uplift procedures?
A. A breast reduction reduces the breast volume as well as tightening the skin. Women who benefit from this are those who get symptoms from heavy breasts, including neck ache, backache, and infections, and soreness underneath breasts.
We find that women who benefit from, the mastopexy (breast uplift) procedure, where we just refashion the skin and lift the breast without reducing the volume, are those that have either lost weight or after pregnancy where the breast tissue itself drops and the skin stretches.
Q3. What is tuberous breast syndrome and how is it corrected?
A. Tuberous breast is a condition that actually affects perhaps up to 25% of women, and for those who present to us with breast augmentation and breast reduction perhaps up to 50% of women will have this condition. It is a condition where you have reduction in the amount of skin to the breast in the vertical and horizontal plane, the inframammary fold is higher on that side, there may be herniation of the nipple and there is a reduction of breast tissue in that breast.
How can we correct tuberous breast? Well, it depends on the severity, and it depends on the patient's wishes. There is an option to just refashion the breast tissue by doing some internal reorientation
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