Before and after breast reconstruction revision in a 79 year old woman. Nearly 40 years previously, she had undergone bilateral mastectomies for breast cancer and submuscular tissue expander/implant breast reconstruction. Her implants felt tight all the time and she had considered having them removed altogether because of her animation deformity when she flexed her chest muscles and her feeling “like a tight rubber band is stretched across my chest”.
She was thrilled to learn that the simple remedy was to put her pectoralis major muscles back down on her chest wall, to reconstruct her chest muscle anatomy, and to put new smooth round silicone gel implants on top of the muscle, in the prepectoral position. Together with this revision, liposuction of the axillary rolls (armpit fat) and her bra roll complimented the procedure and removed unwanted stubborn fat that protruded out of her tank tops and caused a bra bulge.
This procedure took three hours under general anesthesia. Any time implants are going to be moved from under the muscle to on top of the muscle, our patients need to go to sleep so that we can gently separate the muscle from the undersurface of the breast skin and reattach the muscle to the sternum and the ribs.
Follow up photos are shown one month after surgery. She has been given the green light to return to unrestricted exercise and was instructed on scar therapy. She is thrilled with the cosmetic results of her reconstruction. Her armpit edema (firm swelling after liposuction) is starting to resolve. We will continue to see her yearly in follow up.
*All photos are actual patient photographs and are for illustrative purposes only. Individual results may vary.
