Can I Have a Breast Expander Fitted After Total Right Breast Tissue Removal (I Am Keeping my Breast Skin) and Radiotherapy?

Skin sparing mastectomies, such as the one you are having, usually gives your plastic surgeon more soft tissue to work with and more options for your reconstruction. Depending on the desired size of your reconstruction, a tissue expander may or may nor be necessary. Some patients have implants placed immediately. Others have a tissue expander placed and inflated, then have the tissue expander exchanged out for silicone implants after radiation. When choosing an implant reconstruction +/-... more

There are many options for breast reconstruction. A tissue expander can very commonly be used at the time of mastectomy and filled in between chemo session if necessary. AS for patietns getting RT it may be better to delay it.

There are different thoughts about timing of the expansion of the tissue expander and when to replace it with a permanent implant when radiation therapy is planned. Some feel that complete expansion prior to radiation is best, particularly with skin-sparing mastectomy, others the opposite.This is something to coordinate with your plastic surgeon and oncology team. Hopefully they will be planning to use Alloderm with your reconstruction since this can help avoid some of the problems that... more