Revision Breast Reconstruction Options
A significant part of Dr. Duffy’s practice is revision breast reconstruction. Patients who have had failed reconstructions or poor outcomes elsewhere frequently consult our practice to see if revision surgery can improve the patient’s appearance or satisfaction with their reconstruction. Issues can include lack of satisfaction with size, appearance or symmetry, poor fitting clothes, concerns about intimacy, worries about implant safety, and chronic pain. Our practice has treated hundreds of women who are not satisfied with their reconstruction and it is always gratifying to improve a patient’s life and their confidence with revision breast surgery.
Revision surgeries can often be minor outpatient operations or might involve more advanced microsurgical procedures that use patient’s own tissues to create a breast. Dr. Duffy will listen to a patient’s concerns and make recommendations that almost always improve their satisfaction, pain, or concerns. He strives to improve his patient’s issues with an approach that is individualized for each patient based on their age, lifestyle, and specific concerns. Each patient is different and therefore recommendations by definition have to be individualized.
Dr. Duffy has used a graded scale of goals he hopes to accomplish when caring for patients unhappy with their reconstruction for many years and if you have been a patient of his you will recognize these. First, he strives to alleviate pain when treating any patient who has pain associated with their reconstruction and that is a distressingly common complaint amongst patients who have breast implants or who have been previously radiated. Second, he strives to achieve symmetry of the breasts in clothing. Third, he hopes that when one of his patients passes a mirror naked on their way into the shower they will be comfortable with what they see and confident with their body after their battle with breast cancer. Fourth, he hopes his patients will be confident with their partners or lovers in an intimate situation and not even think about their breast concerns or reconstruction. These goals are progressively more challenging but they are always on Dr. Duffy’s mind when he is doing revision breast surgery.
Improving an unsatisfactory breast reconstruction is one of the things Dr. Duffy loves most about his practice and indeed is a large part of his breast reconstructive practice. It is always sad to meet another patient who has won their battle with breast cancer but is still struggling with pain or asymmetry or confidence issues related to their breast reconstruction.