Robert Whitfield MDAmerica's Breast Implant Illness Expert™

Breast Reconstruction Options After Cancer: Explained by Dr. Robert Whitfield

19 Mar 2018 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:47

A patient-oriented YouTube talk by Dr. Robert Whitfield explaining breast reconstruction options after cancer. The speaker emphasizes patient choice and timing (reconstruction can be done at the same time as cancer surgery), recommends BRCA genetic testing as an option when there is family history, and describes autologous reconstruction using lower-abdomen tissue harvested on its blood vessels with muscle- and nerve-sparing technique to preserve core strength and function.

Chapters

Did you know? It's your right, your choice, to have a breast reconstruction. You can have it at the same time you have your breast surgery. And if you have family history of breast cancer, it's also an option to be tested for the BRCA gene as part of your planning for your surgery. These are your options. And these options exist for all patients undergoing breast reconstruction. The first option is just to use your own tissue. We take the tissue of the lower abdomen just isolated on the blood vessels, not harming any of the muscles of the rectus or the nerves, so that once this is transferred and a new breast is made and you recover from your abdominal surgery, your core strength, your ability to move and pick up your children, ride a bike, ride a horse, nothing's been changed.