Mastectomy Reconstruction

If you need surgery at the time of your mastectomy or after, our expert team offers advanced options to help you achieve your goals.

Mastectomy reconstruction is a major, life-altering decision. Our team offers a full range of reconstruction options to help you restore wholeness. This includes the latest implant procedures, flap techniques that use your own tissue to create a new breast mound, hybrid reconstruction that combines flap and implant techniques, symmetry procedures and more.

• Implant Reconstruction
• Flap Reconstruction
• Hybrid Reconstruction
• Reconstruction FAQs

Mastectomy reconstruction: Why choose Henry Ford Health?

• Integrated care: Many breast cancer patients tell us breast reconstruction surgery after a mastectomy is a critical part of their healing process. Because of this, plastic surgeons who specialize in breast reconstruction play a crucial role on our breast cancer tumor board. We are the only program in Michigan to include plastic surgeons on the breast cancer team.
• Expert team: We perform over 250 breast reconstruction procedures every year. Our mastectomy reconstruction surgeons use proven approaches for the best possible outcomes.
• A focus on immediate reconstruction: This is our gold standard. Some women hesitate to have breast reconstruction because of concerns over disfigurement. Research has shown that women who can get breast reconstruction at the time of their cancer surgery experience a minimal change in quality of life, given that they come out of surgery with their reconstructed breast. Our expert team has the microsurgical experience necessary to perform these procedures, and we work to offer immediate reconstruction at the time of cancer surgery to as many women as possible.
• Personalized treatment plans: If you need surgery at the same time or after mastectomy, your surgeon will discuss your options soon after your breast cancer diagnosis. We consider what’s most important to you and give you all the information, including our treatment recommendations, so you can make an informed decision.
• Support throughout your care: Cancer care is a journey. We provide support throughout treatment to help aid your recovery and ensure you can enjoy the highest quality of life.

Types of breast reconstruction at the same time or after mastectomy

• Breast flap procedures: Our mastectomy reconstruction surgeons are experienced in specialized microsurgery breast flap techniques that use your own body’s tissue for reconstruction.
• Implant reconstruction: We offer the latest implant options for breast reconstruction, including 1-stage (direct to implant) and 2-stage implant procedures.
• Hybrid reconstruction: This advanced surgery combines techniques from both breast flap and implant procedures.
• Breast reconstruction using your own mastectomy skin (Goldilocks procedure): During this procedure, unhealthy breast tissue is removed, but the remaining skin, fat and blood vessels are rearranged and used to form a new breast mound. This is done without the need for an implant or flap, and it represents a middle-of-the-road approach to breast reconstruction.
• Nipple reconstruction and 3D nipple tattoos: If you are not having a nipple-sparing mastectomy, your nipple-areolar complex (the area defined by your nipple and the pigmented area that surrounds it) will be removed during surgery. In this case, we offer two options to restore your nipple—a procedure that rebuilds this tissue and one that uses a tattoo to recreate the appearance of a nipple.
• Symmetry procedures: If you need a one-sided breast reconstruction, we also offer procedures that help to restore symmetry. This may include a breast lift, implant or fat grafting—harvesting fat from another part of the body and injecting it into specific areas of the surgically altered breast to match the shape of the other breast.
• Corrective reconstruction: If you had breast reconstruction in the past and didn’t have a good outcome, we can help. Our surgeons are experienced in techniques that can correct issues from previous reconstruction procedures.
• Lymphedema surgery: If you need to have most or all of your lymph nodes removed during breast cancer surgery, we offer the latest procedures for reconstruction of your lymphatic system.

Sensory reconstruction of mastectomy skin and the nipple-areolar complex

One concern many women have is whether breast cancer surgery will affect sensation. Thanks to new advances in surgical techniques, our mastectomy reconstruction surgeons offer a procedure that is performed at the time of your mastectomy, and which aims to restore sensation to your mastectomy skin and the nipple-areolar complex.

During this specialized procedure, we use a nerve graft (often from a human cadaver) to reconnect the cut nerve endings in your chest wall to the cut nerve endings under your nipple. You may be a candidate for this procedure if you are:

• Having a nipple-sparing mastectomy.
• Smaller than a C-cup breast.
• OK with receiving human cadaver–donated tissue.

Nerve reconstruction is an involved process that can take 1-2 years to restore sensation.

Find out if you’re a candidate for this procedure at your consultation.