Mastectomies

What is a mastectomy or a mastectomy with reconstruction?

A mastectomy is a complete breast removal. Another option would be a complete breast removal and breast reconstruction, which can be done immediately with the initial surgery or it can be done later as in delayed fashion. There's many reasons why sometimes we recommend delayed, or a woman may choose to have her reconstruction in a delayed fashion. 

What can patients expect after a mastectomy?

The mastectomy procedure requires an overnight stay. It is a little bit more surgery. Recovery is a little bit more involved in that there's more to heal, but usually it's very quick, and most women are pleasantly surprised that their discomfort afterwards is pretty minimal because we don't cut any muscle during a mastectomy. And once our patients are able to use their arms with the range of motion that we have them do because they're restricted because of the discomfort, within a week or two they're feeling pretty normal. Now, the skin incision usually heals up within about a week. They need a couple, two weeks to three or four weeks, in order to feel completely normal with their arm use and their normal activity but very well tolerated. 

What is a nipple-sparing mastectomy? 

We know that saving the nipple, because typically in a standard mastectomy the nipple needs to be removed, but we know that in many women the nipple does not need to be removed and can be saved, and obviously increases the cosmetic benefits afterwards. So we are evaluating all our mastectomy patients who want reconstruction for that possibility, but the results are extremely satisfying because we're able to save the nipple in many cases. The nipple-sparing mastectomy is very dependent on the skills of the plastic surgeon in terms of patient selection and the type of reconstruction, and so it's a team effort with the breast cancer surgeon and the plastic surgeon to find the patients that would be most beneficial to undergo then have the best results.