Stacked DIEP Reconstruction for Breast Cancer Patients

With new advances in medicine, you should never be surprised at the wonderful things that doctors can do today to help those who have had breast cancer surgery that necessitated a mastectomy. If you are in this situation, various flap surgeries might be an option to replace the tissue that was removed from your breast. Where you may run into trouble is if you are a very thin individual. In this case, you may still have flap surgery, but you may need a stacked DIEP reconstruction surgery due to your lack of enough fat on one side of the belly area.

The stacked DIEP reconstruction surgery takes from both sides of the abdomen creating a flap on both sides to remove tissue to replace one breast. If this is still not enough tissue, or if there was not enough in the abdominal area at all then another option is to do a flap surgery in the hip and buttocks region. This surgery is done carefully and does not leave obvious signs. This procedure is called the GAP flap.

So whether it is necessary to just use the stacked DIEP reconstruction procedure or if you need the GAP flap in addition or on its own, hopefully these options will work for your situation. It is wonderful that even those women without much body fat may still be able to have their breasts reconstructed to give the confidence that is needed after such difficult cancer treatment.

If you have been told that traditional transfer methods will not work for you because you are too thin, you might ask about stacked DIEP reconstruction and also the Gap Flap. There is no reason for you have to go with old methods that could take away muscle and strength.

If your oncologist does not know about these techniques, you might consider doing some research on your own to find a surgical oncologist or plastic surgeon that works on these specific cases. Make sure that the surgeon that you end up choosing is very familiar with cancer treatment and that nothing they do will keep doctors from being able to test for cancer in the future. Also make sure that the surgeon is a respected one and has many positive reviews for his or her work. Before going forward, also make sure that you are cleared by your oncologist for more surgery.

Having stacked DIEP reconstruction surgery will likely boost your confidence helping you emotionally which will likely also help you physically. It is so important to be your best so that you can heal and get back into the routine that you once had.