Breast Surgery

Plastic surgery of the breast focuses on restoration or improvement of breast shape. This may entail reduction in size (breast reduction), increase in size (breast augmentation with implants), improvement of drooping and laxity by lifting (mastopexy) or reconstruction of deformities after partial or complete removal of the breast for cancer.

Reconstruction after mastectomy is an important part of our practice. Depending on the desires of the patient we employ prosthetic reconstruction with implants or tissue expanders, techniques using the patient's own tissue (autologous reconstruction) and hybrid methods using autologous techniques in conjunction with prosthesis.

Autologous techniques may give the patient the benefit of the most natural feel and shape of the reconstructed breast at the cost of increasingly complex surgery. In selected cases of partial mastectomies (lumpectomies, quadrantectomies) rearrangement of the breast tissue may be feasible (so called oncoplastic procedures). In most instances, however, tissue from other parts of the body (the donor site) will have to be added to the breast to recreate its shape. Over the years, various donor sites have been added to our armamentarium and today we perform transfers from the back (latissimus dorsi, thoracodorsal artery perforator flap), abdomen (TRAM flap, DIEP flap, SIEA flap), buttocks (IGAP and SGAP flap) and thigh (gracilis flap) to the breast. While transfers from the back and the TRAM flap can be performed without employing microsurgical techniques, the majority of transfers require extensive microsurgical expertise. Even the TRAM flap may fare better if performed as a microsurgical transfer.

Please visit our image gallery for examples of various strategies for breast reconstruction.

St. Dominic East Medical Tower 971 Lakeland Drive, Suite 315 Jackson, MS 39216 601-981-2525