Women confronted with the option of having breast reconstructive surgery face a difficult decision that raises many questions about the procedure itself and the potential outcome.
Miami Cancer Institute [1] provides the most advanced surgeries and overall care for cancer patients, including breast reconstruction for women who have undergone mastectomies.
“Breast reconstruction has been proven to really improve the quality of patients’ lives by removing the disfigurement and deformity associated with mastectomies,” says Miguel A. Medina III, M.D. [2], director of microsurgery at Miami Cancer Institute. “It helps patients move on. Patients that have had breast reconstruction have shown to have much lower levels of anxiety and depression after their cancer care. And they just have a much more positive outlook on life.”
(Video: The Baptist Health News Team hears from Miguel A. Medina III, M.D., director of microsurgery at Miami Cancer Institute, about the Institute’s innovative breast reconstructive options and how such procedures affect a patient’s quality of life. Video by Alcyene de Almeida Rodrigues)
The American Cancer Society (ACS) says that some cancer patients have a choice between having breast reconstruction at the same time as the mastectomy (immediate reconstruction) or at a later time (delayed reconstruction). Some women don’t want to have to make decisions about reconstruction while being treated for their breast cancer, the ACS says. If this is the case, the patient might choose to wait until after her breast cancer surgery to decide about reconstruction. Either way, cancer patients should consult with their oncologist and surgeon and have all their questions answered.
In his Q&A on reconstructive surgery, Dr. Medina talks about the Institute’s advanced micro-surgery options.
“One of the areas in which we have a particular focus here is micro-surgical breast reconstruction,” says Dr. Medina. “That involves transplanting tissues from one part of the patient’s body to another. When we do these tissue transplants, we do no harm in the donor site and we’ve created a successful breast reconstruction.”
Watch the video Q&A now.