Breast Cancer – Autologous Reconstruction – Procedure

Transcript

So how is autologous reconstruction done? The gold standard for autologous reconstruction is using tissue from the lower abdomen. We remove this tissue based off of perforating blood vessels from the deep inferior epigastric artery and vein that runs underneath the abdominal rectus muscles. This tissue is dissected out. We leave the muscle and fascia behind. This tissue comes completely off of the human body and is then sewn into blood vessels in the chest, into the internal mammary artery and vein. These blood vessels are typically two to three millimeters in diameter. We’re using suture the size of a human hair, and this is all done under a microscope, very carefully.