Posted by Dr. D on September 28, 2009, 9:11 pm, in reply to "Various Flap Outcomes"
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Dear Baldee,
You are noticing the difference between immediate and delayed breast reconstruction outcomes. For those women who have had mastectomy at some time in the distant past, we have to replace not only the breast tissue that was removed but also the breast skin that was taken away.
For immediate breast reconstructions (reconstruction in the same surgery as the mastectomy), we can usually preserve the skin of the breast and fill it in with the flap tissue thereby eliminating the need for the large skin patch addition.
Hope this makes sense,
Yours,
Dr. D
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