Background and Objective

Treatment of mammary neoplasms as well as certain benign conditions require, in many cases, a unilateral or bilateral mastectomy with resection of the skin, the mammary gland and the nipple-areola complex. Breast reconstruction is an important part of the multidisciplinary treatment to achieve the reintegration of women into a normal life.

The aim of our study was to report the results of the different types of breast reconstruction in patients with breast cancer as well as other benign conditions in a highly specialized hospital in Western Mexico.

Methods

Case series of patients undergoing breast reconstruction from 1 January 2006 to 31 December 2012 were included with different procedures evaluating the type of initial surgery, type of reconstruction, complementary procedures and morbidity. The follow-up of the patients was 24 months.

Results

One hundred and seventy patients were included. The average age was 46.12 ± 8.2 years. The most used techniques were: reconstruction with expander Becker type implant (48.8%), tissue expander (11.2%), transverse rectus abdominus mucocutaneous flap (8.8%), definitive implants (8.8%) and wide dorsal reconstruction plus implant or expander (8.8%). Complications occurred in 20 patients (11.8%).

Conclusions

Our results are satisfactory, since early and late morbidity are acceptable, but, perfectible. With the advent of extensive early detection campaigns, we hope to increase conservative procedures for early and oncoplastic procedures during mastectomy, without the need to wait for long periods for reconstruction.

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