Types of Breast Reconstruction Surgery
If you’re a Houston woman facing a mastectomy, you have likely found this blog post because you are researching your options for breast reconstruction. This reconstructive procedure to rebuild breast tissue can be performed immediately, meaning during your mastectomy surgery, or it can be delayed and performed weeks, months or even years after your Houston mastectomy. But just as every woman and every case of breast cancer is unique, every breast reconstruction surgery is, too. Read on as Houston breast reconstruction plastic surgeons Dr. Fusi & Dr. Craig explain the types of breast reconstruction surgeries to you to help better educate you on your surgical options.
Flap Breast Reconstruction
Many Houston breast cancer patients are probably aware that breast cancer reconstruction surgery can be performed using your body’s own tissue, giving you natural looking and feeling results. This breast reconstruction surgical option is called flap reconstruction, and it is very popular in Dr. Fusi & Dr. Craig’s Houston practice.
There are several different types of flap breast reconstruction surgeries that can be performed on Houston women, each of them using different tissue supplies to rebuild the breasts. Here is a list of the most common flap breast reconstruction surgeries, which Dr. Fusi & Dr. Craig perform in their Houston practice:
DIEP flap is a muscle-sparing breast reconstruction surgery. It uses fat tissue from your lower abdomen to rebuild your breasts, and is ideal for women who have extra fat in their abdomen and women who natural looking reconstructed breasts.
Less common than a DIEP flapdue to anatomical constraints, a SIEA flap is another muscle-sparing surgery that also uses lower abdominal tissue to rebuild the breast. Using the superficial inferior epigastric artery (SIEA), a SIEA flap relies on lower abdominal tissue to reconstruct the breasts.
- SGAP Flap
Ideal for women who do not have excess tissue in their abdomen, a muscle-sparing SGAP flap breast reconstruction relies on tissue from your upper buttocks and hips to reconstruct your breasts. Because a SGAP flap breast reconstruction surgery doesn’t use abdominal tissue, women who have had a tummy tuck can have this procedure performed.
- PAP Flap
The final muscle-sparing breast construction surgery, a PAP flap, uses tissue from your thighs to rebuild your breasts. Women who are not good candidates for DIEP flap and SIEA flap, and women with small to medium sized breasts, typically get a PAP flap breast reconstruction.
Moving Forward with Your Houston Breast Reconstruction
Now that you have a better idea of the different breast reconstruction surgery types available to use as a mastectomy patient, we recommend that you speak with Dr. Fusi & Dr. Craig to discuss which option is best for you. During this appointment, Dr. Fusi & Dr. Craig will perform a full breast examination, discuss your unique situation and explain their suggested procedure to you in detail, as well as answer any questions that you may have.
To schedule a consultation in their Houston offices, call (713) 346-9909 today.