Before and after bilateral mastectomies and DIEP flap breast reconstruction in a 54-year-old woman with breast cancer. She did not want to use implants for reconstruction and had enough tummy tissue to create two breasts.
A combined breast cancer and reconstruction surgery was planned. The Microsurgery team elevated the flaps on the lower abdomen while the mastectomies were being performed. Tiny blood vessels were disconnected and reconnected under the microscope, and her abdominal donor site was closed as for an abdominoplasty.
A couple of days after surgery while she was still in the hospital, she lifted something heavy with her left dominant hand and developed an acute hematoma, where blood accumulated around the left DIEP flap inside her breast, putting the flap at risk of failure. Thankfully, it was salvaged by evacuating blood and redoing the anastomoses (blood vessel connections).
Follow up photos are shown 2 years after surgery, with mature scars and very acceptable symmetry, especially given her complication and delayed healing of the left breast afterward.
*All photos are actual patient photographs and are for illustrative purposes only. Individual results may vary.
