35-44 year old woman treated with Breast Reconstruction

This young lady in her early 40s had a delayed left breast reconstruction after breast cancer, mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation to the left chest wall and axilla after having lymph nodes positive with cancer metastasis. For her staged left breast reconstruction I performed a flap from her abdomen using microsurgery to reconnect the artery and vein (that supplies the abdominal skin and fat) to an artery and vein in the chest wall below the ribs near the sternum. During a second stage, I shaped both breasts, placed breast implants and lifted for symmetry. Later nipple reconstruction and tattoo are planned. The advantage of this procedure is that it borrows tissue from the abdomen, contours the tummy similar to a tummy tuck and at the same time brings healthy vascular tissue to perform the breast reconstruction. Here she is wearing a temporary nipple tattoo in order to plan for the position of the nipple reconstruction surgery to come later.