Dr. Howie Levinson, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, discusses approaches the reconstruction options available for breast cancer patients.
My name is Howie Levinson. I'm a plastic and reconstructive surgeon and I work for a Centra medical group. I think there are a few different approaches to the patient. Um breast reconstruction is very individualistic. There's a, there's a menu of options uh that exist so the patient really can drive the decision making process. Uh It's fairly unique in that way. And so sitting and talking with the patient figuring out do they want autologous reconstruction, which is using their own body only do they want implant based reconstruction? And that's the prosthetic materials, the silicone or saline sort of breast implants that we're aware of that we have on the market today. Excuse me, there's fat grafting to put around implants. Now, that's been um a very hot topic and common approach. Now taking fat from one part of the body, usually either the love handles or the back or the buttock and then um feathering that around the implant just out the implant. Um is another hot area for reconstruction. I think we talked about where surgically you put the implant um is also uh a hot topic and important for the patient. Some patients want to go direct implants. That's another area that's been, that's sort of taken off where they just have their breasts removed and go straight to an implant. Other people will want to do a, uh, a sizer basically in there or a tissue expander that you put in there and you can change the size of the breast over time and we kind of add volume to it until they get to sort of the size they want. It's a little bit analogous to like trying on the clothes before you purchase them. The direct implant is you purchase the clothes out, right? The the expanders are more like you try on a series of clothes for a little while. Over several weeks, you bring them home, you decide what you like, what's gonna look good on you and then you go ahead and buy it. So they both have their pros and cons that depends on what the patient wants. Um So those are uh some of the more common things that are happening in uh breast reconstruction uh today.
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