OBJECTIVES To determine the impact of chemotherapy and the timing of chemotherapy on postoperative outcomes after mastectomy and immediate breast reconstruction. DESIGN Retrospective review. SETTING University tertiary care institution. PATIENTS One hundred sixty-three consecutive patients undergoing mastectomy and immediate breast reconstruction. INTERVENTION Systemic chemotherapy for ...

BACKGROUND Breast reconstruction is associated with high levels of patient satisfaction. Previous patient satisfaction studies have been subjective. This study utilizes functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to objectively evaluate "sense of self" following deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) flap breast reconstruction in an attempt to better understand patient perception. METHOD...

Neoadjuvant radio chemotherapy and immediate reconstruction for breast cancer are still under debate. But there are recent abstracts and articles which show that neoadjuvant radio chemotherapy is feasible and could improve the clinical outcome of breast cancer patients. The aim of this review is to present the authors' techniques and approaches with regard to neoadjuvant radiation of breast can...

BACKGROUND Reconstructive alternatives should be discussed with women facing mastectomy for breast cancer. These include immediate and delayed reconstruction, which both have inherent advantages and disadvantages. Immediate reconstruction rates vary considerably in Swedish healthcare regions, and the aim of the study was to analyse reasons for this disparity. METHODS All women who underwent m...

BACKGROUND For early breast cancer patients, skin-sparing mastectomy or nipple-sparing mastectomy with sentinel lymph node biopsy has become the mainstream treatment for immediate breast reconstruction in possible cases. However, a few cases of skin necrosis caused by methylene blue dye (MBD) used for sentinel lymph node localization have been reported. METHODS Immediate breast reconstruction...

Background: Post-operative complications are more frequent after immediate breast reconstruction and there are concerns that it adversely affects clinical outcome. Objectives: We reviewed the rate of early and late complications after immediate breast reconstruction and evaluated their impact on adjuvant treatments and outcome. Methods: Retrospective review was performed of 146 women who underw...

Objective: Oncoplastic surgery was developed to allow for large tumor excision and immediate breast reconstruction with the goal of optimal breast shape and symmetry. Although initially used in women who underwent lumpectomy for breast malignancy, these techniques can be useful for cosmetic issues caused by benign breast disease. We describe a modification of an inferior pedicle with Wise-patte...

Pedicle damage is a rare complication of latissimus dorsi (LD) flap breast reconstruction. We report a case of accidental avulsion of the vascular pedicle of a totally autologous (extended) LD flap during immediate breast reconstruction in a patient who had previously undergone contralateral breast reconstruction with a pedicled TRAM flap based on the opposite superior epigastric vessels. The i...

Our group sought to determine the influence of health insurance coverage on use of immediate breast reconstruction for working-age women undergoing mastectomy for breast cancer. METHODS We used 2 complementary databases, the Texas Cancer Registry-linked Medicaid database and the MarketScan private insurance database, to identify working-age women in Texas from 2000 to 2007 treated with mastec...