Before and after DIEP flap breast reconstruction in a 62 year old woman with right breast cancer. She required a non-skin sparing mastectomy and she had an overabundance of abdominal tissue to use for reconstruction! She chose to leave her left breast alone, but she wanted to have a perkier result on both sides.
A right DIEP flap reconstructed her right breast and replaced the missing tissue at the bottom of her breast. At the same surgery, a left mastopexy lifted her left breast. Over a kilogram of extra abdominal skin and fat was thrown away – to our patient’s delight!
Six months later, she underwent free fat grafting to further contour her abdominal donor site. Her right nipple was reconstructed by the “nipple sharing” (free nipple graft) technique and a medical tattoo reconstructed her areola.
Follow up photos are shown a year after her DIEP flap breast reconstruction and 6 months after nipple-areola reconstruction. She is completing her chemotherapy and looks forward to having her port removed and getting back to normal life, without her big belly!
*All photos are actual patient photographs and are for illustrative purposes only. Individual results may vary.
