Breast reconstruction is a vital part of your recovery from breast cancer. Beyond affecting your appearance, recreating your breast restores a feeling of normality and boosts your self-confidence — two emotional factors that promote healing and restore wellness.
When you need breast reconstruction, the skill of your plastic surgeon is the main predictor of your results. That’s especially true when you choose fat grafting because your plastic surgeon must carefully inject the fat to create the appearance you desire.
Matthew J. Lynch, MD, has a renowned reputation (with patients and peers) for combining an exquisite artistic eye with the surgical skill and extensive experience needed to reconstruct your breasts using fat grafting.
Using fat to reconstruct your breasts, called fat grafting, refers to removing fat from one part of your body, then using it to build new breasts or restore the space left after a lumpectomy.
You may think of body fat as no more than an unwanted, unattractive blob of useless tissue. But your fat is made up of active, living cells. The fat used to recreate your breasts establishes its blood supply and continues to live as part of your body.
Since your fat graft comes from your body, you don’t need to worry about potential side effects. And most importantly, you can’t get more natural-looking and feeling breasts than the results accomplished from a fat graft.
Most women are good candidates for a fat graft. However, there’s one important consideration: You need enough excess body fat to reconstruct your breasts. You should also know that we can perform a fat graft whether you have a mastectomy or lumpectomy.
Breast reconstruction is a highly personal decision and an experience we customize to meet each woman’s unique emotional and physical needs. We discuss all the details and answer your questions during your breast reconstruction consultation.
Whenever possible, it’s critical to meet with us before your mastectomy. It's important to make decisions that affect breast reconstruction, such as leaving a flap of skin (if possible) versus needing to remove the skin from your abdomen to rebuild a new breast.
If we plan your reconstruction procedure, we can work with your oncologist to preserve tissues during your mastectomy.
The basics of fat grafting sound simple. We use liposuction to remove fat from one area of your body then we inject it to build new breasts. However, there’s a step that makes a big difference to the success of your procedure — and that’s processing the fat tissue.
Before injecting the fat, we put it through a strict cleansing process, removing cellular debris and other unwanted components, ensuring you receive an injection of pure, healthy fat cells without contaminants that might affect their survival.
When the cells are ready, we precisely inject them to repair or reconstruct your breasts. The process involves a series of small injections, an approach that creates the most aesthetic results.
Some injected cells won’t survive even though fat cells can regenerate new tissues and produce new blood vessels. Since this is an expected part of fat grafting, we plan ahead and usually inject a little extra fat to offset the loss.
Some women may need several fat graft procedures to achieve their desired results. However, we can be more specific about that during your consultation.
If you need help navigating breast cancer surgery and breast reconstruction, call Matthew J. Lynch, MD, or use our online feature to request a consultation today at our East Windsor, New Jersey office.
