Sacral tumours often present surgical resection and reconstruction challenges. Wide resections result in large sacral defects and neoadjuvant radiotherapy impairs wound healing. The wounds need to be covered with bulky, well-vascularised, healthy tissues. We present 2 cases where large sacral defects were reconstructed following tumour resection. Both defects were reconstructed with inferiorly ...

UNLABELLED Breast reconstruction after mastectomy is primarily carried out to improve the patients' quality of life. The most commonly used autologous tissue for reconstruction is the transverse rectus abdominis musculocutaneous flap (TRAM). The TRAM flap could be transferred either as pedicled or a free flap with microvascular anastomosis. The following work was carried out to evaluate the two...

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of obesity on flap and donor-site complications in patients undergoing free transverse rectus abdominis myocutaneous (TRAM) flap breast reconstruction. All patients undergoing breast reconstruction with free TRAM flaps at our institution from February 1, 1989, through May 31, 1998, were reviewed. Patients were divided into three groups based on...

PURPOSE To evaluate the feasability of immediate breast reconstruction (IBR) following mastectomy after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) and radiation therapy (RT) for operable invasive breast cancer (OIBC), in terms of incidence of local complications, locoregional control and survival. PATIENTS AND METHODS From 1990 to 2008, 210 patients were treated by NACT, RT and mastectomy with IBR for O...

The most common complication after abdominoplasty is seroma formation. The incidence of seroma formation in abdominal procedures as a whole, including abdominoplasty, panniculectomy and transverse rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap abdominal donor sites, ranges from 1% to 38%. A recent concern among surgeons is the possibility of a causal relationship between the use of continuous infusion devi...

BACKGROUND As the U.S. population becomes increasingly overweight, a growing number of patients with body mass indexes greater than 30 are seeking mastectomy reconstruction. The authors' purpose was to prospectively evaluate the effect of body mass index on patient satisfaction with breast reconstruction. METHODS Women undergoing first-time breast reconstruction at one of 12 centers in the Un...

Perineal hernia after infralevator posterior pelvic exenteration due to adenocarcinoma of the lower rectum with genital invasion: a rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap was used to repair the defect and reconstruct the vagina. The donor abdominal fascia area was reinforced with bio-absorbable mesh (BioA-Gore). On CT, ileal loops were observed with elongated mesentery in the pelvis and perineum, a...

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to demonstrate the use of the authors' technique to improve long-term maintenance of nipple projection by using AlloDerm (LifeCell Corp., Branchburg, N.J.) as a central core in nipple reconstruction. METHODS The nipple reconstruction technique involved the use of a modified star dermal flap pattern measuring 5 cm in length and 1.0 to 1.5 cm in width,...