Reconstructive Surgery

Reconstructive surgery is the origin of Plastic Surgery as such and deals with reconstruction of the body surface and function following trauma, tumor resection or congenital defects. Due to the many different possible reasons for such deformities there is an abundance of reconstructive options.

Microsurgical free-tissue transfer either as skin, fat, muscle , bone or even all different components together allow reconstructive options from simple soft tissue closure, especially in reconstruction of the lower limb to functional muscle transfers and reconstruction following tumor resection, especially melanoma and breast cancer. This, on the other side, allows a much more radical resection of malignant tumors especially in breast surgery without impairing quality of life too much.

An important part of reconstructive surgery is furtherore the reconstruction of peripheral nerves as well as scar revisions following trauma, especially burns.

Reconstructive breast surgery

The loss of her breast due to cancer resection is a very traumatizing event for every woman, impairing her quality of life enormously. There are different surgical approaches to breast cancer, which can vary from limited tissue resection (lumpectomy) via skin preserving techniques (subcutaneous mastectomy) to complete resection of breast and skin ( complete mastectomy).

Reconstruction of the breast by simply inserting a silicone implant is not always possible after irradiation, and the aesthetic result in many cases less than desirable. In many cases women are much happier with the feel of their own body tissue for reconstruction of her breast. This can be achieved with various tissue transfers-so called “flaps” for instance as a free tissue-transfer from the lower abdomen, when a block of skin and fat with or without a piece of the abdominal muscle is harvested together with corresponding blood vessels which are than connected to blood vessels in the axilla using microsurgical techniques.

This procedure includes the benefit of aesthetic reshaping of the abdominal wall like in a tummy tuck. Nipple-areola reconstruction as well as adjusting procedures on the contralateral side are sometimes necessary.