Before and after bilateral skin-sparing mastectomies and immediate breast reconstruction with DIEP flaps in a 58-year-old woman with recurrent breast cancer. She previously had undergone a right lumpectomy, chemotherapy and radiation therapy for invasive breast cancer – now, thirteen years later, she required a double mastectomy for recurrent cancer on the right and a new invasive cancer on the left. She was lucky enough to have an overabundance of lower abdominal skin and fat to reconstruct two breasts!
Her nipples and areolas were removed as part of the mastectomies as per the recommendation of her breast surgeon, along with some involved right breast skin. For her breast reconstructions, skin and fat was microvascularly transplanted from her lower abdomen to her chest, dissecting the blood supply under magnification and then disconnecting and reconnecting the blood vessels in the new flap site under the operating microscope.
Six months later, she underwent nipple reconstruction using the local flap technique. Medical tattoo created two new areolar circles.
Follow up photos are shown a year and a half after surgery. The right radiated skin envelope remains slightly constricted due to radiation changes, which are permanent. She is very satisfied with her breast reconstruction results.
*All photos are actual patient photographs and are for illustrative purposes only. Individual results may vary.
