Robert Whitfield MD explains why implant-based reconstruction dominates US breast cancer surgery. Implants are simpler and available at community hospitals nationwide, but infection, radiation, or tissue damage can force a switch to more complex DIEP free-flap surgery using the patient's own tissue.
A lot of people get implant based breast reconstruction in the United States. It's the most common form and people like, why? Well, this is a country that is massive. If everybody hasn't noticed, outside of big medical centers, community based hospitals have to be able to provide a service. So if you go see a surgeon, unfortunately you get diagnosed with breast cancer, you can get a lumpectomy and radiation therapy because that's consistent with the five year survival of a mastectomy. If you're getting a mastectomy, you know, you would hope the patient wants a reconstruction, but that's not always the case. Maybe they just want a flat closure. That's fine too. There's there. It's just what the patient wants. You have to be able to explain the menu properly to the patient. So these are the risks and benefits of having an implant. These are some benefits of not having an implant. These are some benefits of a tissue based reconstruction. Like something that's called a die p free flaps and you add to that with fat over time. So what I used to do in the kind of reverse engineered world is I would get a patient who had a painful breast reconstruction or maybe they had gotten infection, maybe they had got radiation therapy and over time the tissues had become fibrotic or thickened or firm or basically they were extruding an implant because the tissue can just fail over time over the implant. So I would convert all those people into that diep free flap.
