For twenty years I have been involved in the fight to constantly improve the surgical care we give to women with breast cancer. I believe this started when I was in general surgery training, in Miami, during the late 1980’s. Back then, women had the option of mastectomy or lumpectomy with radiation therapy; few women were choosing breast reconstruction, and hardly never at the time of the mastectomy.

As I learned to perform mastectomies I saw the importance of removing all the breast tissue necessary to beat the cancer, but was dismayed at the deforming results of the surgery. In the early ’90s most reconstruction was performed with tissue expanders as a first stage and then later replaced with breast implants. Throughout the remaining years of the 20th century, tissue flaps such as TRAM flaps and Latissimus muscle flaps gained popularity and improved the quality of breast reconstruction.

However, it was the advent of the skin sparing mastectomy at the beginning of the millennium, and later the nipple sparing mastectomy, that completely turned things around. Never before had we achieved such excellent results in breast reconstruction as we did after these advances in mastectomies. With this new era in treatment of breast cancer, we were able to perform reconstructions with implants that began to achieve aesthetic results almost as good as our cosmetic procedures. The addition of autologous fat grafting, or liposuction from the patient injected to the reconstructed breast finally lead to achieving aesthetic results on par with cosmetic breast augmentation in many patients. Since 2015 we have  progressed to using an absorbable scaffold combined with fat grafting that does away with the need for silicone implants. This technique reconstructs a totally natural looking and feeling breast. We aim to restore a natural looking breast that not only moves and feels natural, but has normal sensation. This can only be accomplished when a minimally invasive mastectomy is performed, which removes all of the breast gland or potential cancer causing tissue. This technique will preserve the innocent surrounding fat and fascia of the breast, which is where the nerves and blood supply run. 

If you are interested in breast reconstruction, or just have a question about your different breast procedure options, click the link below to schedule a personal and confidential cosmetic surgery consultation through our convenient on-line form. Or call 1-727-341-0337.