|
Thousands of women lose their breasts to cancer. Mammography after thirty years of age is a must and this helps the patient to find out if cancer is developing in the early stages itself. If it is detected early, only part of the breast may be removed and the patient will be treated for cancer using radiation and chemotherapy. If it is undetected, it may grow in such proportions that mastectomy becomes the only answer to correct it.
Mastectomy is the surgical removal of breasts. If a breast or both of them have been removed, the patient need not panic or lose her confidence or feel embarrassed. Breast reconstruction can be done and with newer techniques and better breast implants, the reconstruction can be very successful and cosmetically very satisfying. The breast cancer reconstruction can begin along with mastectomy unless radiation is incomplete and the patient has to still have it. The whole procedure may take six months or longer and the patient may have pain or itching or some such problems.
The normal procedure begins by introducing a tissue expander over the chest bone and under the skin so that the skin can slowly and gently be increased by injecting a liquid step by step every week. The liquid can be saline or silica gel and a fixed amount is increased by injecting it through the port, which may be made of metal or plastic. Once the desired expansion is made, the expander is removed and the implant put in. Sometimes the expander may also double up as the implant in which case it is not necessary to remove the expander. The next step would be to create a nipple.
Newer techniques are experimented and are found to better and more successful. These include the flap type of procedure where tissues from the patient’s own body can be used for the breast reconstruction. This can be from the abdomen, or the thighs or the buttocks or any other suitable place. There are several other procedures as well. They all begin with the patient-doctor discussions on the medical history of the patient, the description of the procedure, the plus and minus points and the decision on which procedure to use. Once this is done, the patient is readied for the surgery and anesthesia is given. The procedure may take two to three hours. Subsequent visits may not take as much time.
The patient may have uneasiness, discomfort, pain, fever, redness, discharge, and infection, numbness in the arm or tingling sensation. All these can be reduced with medication. Patience in the patient and perseverance in the doctor will produce good and satisfactory results. |
