Before and after left nipple and areola reconstruction in a 41 year old woman with left breast cancer. She previously had a left lumpectomy but her margins were positive. She required a non-nipple sparing mastectomy with removal of her left areola.
During her DIEP flap breast reconstruction, a small circle of skin transplanted from the abdomen was moved to the location of the previous left areola. To reconstruct the nipple, a small piece of the right nipple was transplanted from the right nipple as a free nipple graft. This is called “nipple sharing”. In most cases, the reconstructed nipple looks like it was always there! Healing of a free nipple graft is around 98% successful, just like a skin graft.
The “donor nipple” becomes around half its original size. Sensation is maintained to the remaining nipple on the donor breast. The recipient nipple graft will have some light touch sensation over time, but it will not have the same type of erogenous sensation as the donor nipple.
A medical tattoo was used to reconstruct her left areola. The right areola also was tattooed to achieve symmetry of the areola color, hue and intensity between the two sides. This procedure can be done under local anesthesia in the office, or combined with other second stage procedures such as free fat grafting and scar revisions.
Follow up photos are shown one year after the free nipple graft and six months after medical tattoo of the recipient nipple (left side) and donor nipple (right side).
*All photos are actual patient photographs and are for illustrative purposes only. Individual results may vary.
