Post mastectomy immediate breast reconstruction experience in a high volume centre in India

Early diagnosis and multi-modality treatment for carcinoma breast has resulted in the prolonged survival of many patients with carcinoma of breast. It is important that the surgeons who handle breast malignancies look at the psychological and cosmetic aspects without compromising the oncological principles of surgery in carcinoma of the breast. Post-mastectomy immediate breast reconstruction (IBR) addresses the psychological and cosmetic problems that follow mastectomy. There are various techniques available for post mastectomy primary breast reconstruction. An ideal technique should be affordable to the majority of economically poor patients and should be less time-consuming. During the period of seven years from January 1996 to December 2002, we operated 2032 cases of carcinoma breast, of which 346 patients had IBR using various procedures. In our centre, TRAM flap was found to be the best procedure for post-mastectomy IBR. Whenever possible, immediate reconstruction is the best. Presence of the tissue used for reconstruction was not found to affect any form of local adjuvant treatment like radiotherapy, or delay the detection of local recurrent disease.