Synopsis:
Breast reconstruction after mastectomy restores more than physical form. It rebuilds confidence and emotional balance. Elite Plastic Surgery has surgeons who specialize in advanced, muscle-sparing techniques such as DIEP and PAP flap reconstruction in Phoenix. Their individualized approach combines precision, compassion, and innovation to help women throughout Arizona feel whole again.
Completing breast cancer treatment marks a significant milestone, yet many women find their journey continues beyond that final appointment. The physical changes from a mastectomy can affect how you see yourself and move through the world. Breast reconstruction offers an opportunity to reclaim your sense of wholeness during this transformative phase.
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, reports show that nearly one-third of mastectomy patients pursue immediate reconstruction, reflecting how important this decision has become in comprehensive cancer care. Whether you’re just beginning to explore your options or actively seeking information about specific techniques, understanding the available pathways helps you make choices aligned with your goals and medical needs.
Elite Plastic Surgery Phoenix AZ has surgeons who specialize in advanced microsurgical reconstruction methods. Dr. Rozbeh Torabi and Dr. Radbeh Torabi have dedicated years to mastering complex reconstructive techniques. They combine training from institutions like Massachusetts General Hospital with a genuine commitment to compassionate patient care.
Understanding Post-Mastectomy Reconstruction
The Fundamentals
Following mastectomy or lumpectomy, reconstruction rebuilds breast contours through surgical techniques. This process addresses both physical appearance and emotional healing, helping you feel more comfortable in your body.
Modern reconstruction follows two fundamental approaches. Implant methods utilize medical devices filled with saline or silicone gel to restore breast volume. Autologous approaches transfer your own tissue from areas like the abdomen or thigh, using microsurgical techniques to create natural breast mounds. Your body type, cancer treatment requirements, and personal preferences guide which path makes sense for your situation.
Timing Your Reconstruction
The timing of your reconstruction significantly influences outcomes. Immediate reconstruction occurs during your mastectomy procedure, allowing you to wake with initial breast contours established. Delayed reconstruction happens weeks or months after completing treatments like radiation or chemotherapy. Delayed-immediate reconstruction involves placing temporary tissue expanders initially, then proceeding with definitive reconstruction once treatments conclude.
Your breast surgeon, oncology team, and our reconstructive specialists coordinate closely to identify optimal timing for your unique medical circumstances. We emphasize informed decision-making, as research demonstrates that patients who fully understand their options achieve the highest satisfaction.
DIEP Flap: Advanced Microsurgical Reconstruction
How DIEP Flap Works
DIEP flap surgery (deep inferior epigastric perforator) represents our most frequently performed autologous reconstruction. This sophisticated technique harvests lower abdominal skin and fat while completely preserving underlying muscle tissue, maintaining your core strength throughout the process.
We identify and isolate tiny blood vessels that perforate through your abdominal muscles, harvesting tissue connected to these vessels while leaving all muscle fibers intact. Using operating microscopes, our surgeons transfer this tissue to your chest and meticulously reconnect the blood vessels. Once blood flow is reestablished, we sculpt the transferred tissue into a natural breast shape.
This approach provides dual benefits: reconstructed breasts plus a flatter, more contoured abdominal appearance similar to a tummy tuck. The tissue used would typically be discarded during abdominoplasty procedures, making it ideal for reconstruction.
Why Muscle-Sparing Matters
TRAM flap procedures require removing sections of abdominal muscle, leading to core weakness and increased hernia risk. Our muscle-sparing DIEP (deep inferior epigastric perforator) approach eliminates these concerns. The abdominal wall muscle is preserved, reducing the rate of abdominal wall bulges and maintaining your core strength. For these reasons, we preferentially perform DIEP flap surgery in Phoenix.
Your reconstructed breasts using abdominal tissue provide a natural look and feel that you wouldn’t achieve with synthetic implants, especially if you only need reconstruction on one breast. These results move naturally with your body, respond to weight fluctuations, and age alongside you, eliminating future concerns about device replacement that implants require.
Recovery Expectations
Following your procedure, you’ll be taken to the recovery room where our post-operation nursing staff monitors your pain, blood flow, vital signs, and cares for your incisions. This procedure requires a stay in the hospital or surgical center where our team provides postoperative monitoring.
Your recovery period will span one to six weeks, including periods of breast tenderness. We recommend avoiding strenuous activities for six weeks. However, light activity can begin as early as four weeks. You should attend all follow-up appointments. We’ll schedule the first one a week after surgery to check your incision points, look for abnormalities, and assess your progress.
PAP Flap: Alternative Tissue Source
When Abdominal Tissue Isn’t Suitable
When there isn’t enough tissue to perform an autologous tissue flap from the abdomen, our plastic and reconstructive surgeons may suggest PAP (profunda artery perforator) flap surgery, where tissue is taken from the inner thigh instead.
This muscle-sparing technique harvests skin and fat from your thigh at the crease of your buttocks. Blood vessels to the flap are preserved and reconnected at the mastectomy site. Unlike the TUG flap, no muscle is sacrificed with a PAP flap. The donor site scar is well hidden in the buttock crease, remaining concealed even in swimwear.
The autologous tissue from the inner thigh gives a natural look and feel to the breast that you wouldn’t achieve with prosthetic implants. Since the PAP flap uses skin and fat from the inner thigh, it also leaves a nice contour to the thigh.
The PAP flap surgery requires four to seven hours in the operating room. Recovery spans one to six weeks, with strenuous activity avoided for six weeks, though light activity can begin as early as four weeks.
Stacked Flap: Comprehensive Reconstruction
Combining Multiple Tissue Sources
Some reconstructions require more tissue volume than a single donor site can provide. Elite Plastic Surgery offers stacked flap reconstruction, combining tissue from multiple body areas to achieve optimal results. We’re the only practice in Arizona currently performing this advanced technique.
This approach utilizes tissue from your abdomen, inner thighs, and outer thighs or hips, depending on available tissue and reconstruction needs. By strategically combining sources, we can reconstruct both breasts while providing body contouring benefits in multiple areas simultaneously.
The procedure takes five to eight hours as our surgical team harvests and transfers tissue from multiple locations. While this means additional incision sites, we carefully position each incision to minimize visibility and can often create body contouring effects similar to tummy tuck and thigh lift procedures combined. Recovery typically requires four to six weeks for initial healing.
Implant-Based Reconstruction Options
Tissue Expanders
Tissue expanders serve as temporary placeholders in the mastectomy pocket. Over subsequent visits to our clinic, we gradually fill the expander with saline solution, gently stretching the skin and muscle to make room for a future breast implant.
This controlled expansion allows your tissue to adapt comfortably while you and your surgeon determine the ideal final breast size. Once expansion is complete and the skin has adequately stretched, we replace the expander with a permanent implant in a follow-up surgery. This staged approach provides flexibility and allows time for completing any additional cancer treatments.
Direct-to-Implant Option
Select candidates qualify for direct-to-implant reconstruction, sometimes called “one-step” breast reconstruction. We offer this option for patients having nipple, areola, and/or skin-sparing mastectomies who don’t wish to increase breast size, are nonsmokers, and won’t require radiation therapy.
Modern implants come in different sizes and cohesiveness levels, offering various options for individualized reconstruction. Recovery takes around two weeks, with some patients experiencing tenderness for up to four weeks. Strenuous activity should be avoided for six weeks. While implants provide excellent results, they may require replacement over time and carry risks like capsular contracture.
Benefits Beyond Physical Appearance
Reconstruction provides benefits extending well past restored breast contours. Women consistently report improved body image, self-confidence, and overall quality of life following reconstruction. These psychological benefits prove just as important as physical outcomes.
Autologous reconstruction using your own tissue offers particularly compelling advantages. Your reconstructed breasts maintain natural warmth and softness, move authentically with your body, and change proportionally with weight fluctuations. Unlike implants, these results age naturally alongside you.
Our muscle-sparing techniques preserve your athletic function and core strength. You won’t experience the weakness or functional limitations that older reconstruction methods caused. Harvesting tissue for reconstruction also creates secondary body contouring effects: a flatter midsection from abdominal tissue, refined leg contours from thigh tissue.
Important Pre-Surgery Considerations
Health and Medical Factors
Your overall health status influences which reconstruction approach works best. Medical conditions like diabetes require careful management. Smoking significantly impairs healing and must be stopped well before any reconstruction procedure. Previous abdominal surgeries or significant scars may affect tissue availability for DIEP reconstruction.
Radiation therapy substantially affects breast reconstruction planning. Implants face higher complication rates in radiated tissue compared to autologous reconstruction. Radiated tissue also proves more difficult to expand. If radiation is part of your treatment plan, we often recommend either delaying reconstruction or choosing autologous tissue methods that typically handle radiation effects better.
Setting Realistic Expectations
Understanding realistic outcomes makes sure of satisfaction with results. Your reconstructed breasts will look and feel natural, but they won’t be identical to your original breasts. All surgical procedures create permanent scars, though we position incisions strategically to minimize visibility. Sensation differs in reconstructed breasts. Some women regain partial sensation over time, while others experience permanent numbness.
Second-stage procedures performed approximately three months after initial reconstruction can further refine results through nipple reconstruction, scar revision, fat grafting, or symmetry adjustments.
Why Patients Choose Elite Plastic Surgery
Specialized Training and Expertise
Our microsurgical training distinguishes Elite Plastic Surgery from general plastic surgery practices. Dr. Rozbeh Torabi is double board-certified in both General Surgery and Plastic Surgery, with post-graduate training at the prestigious Long Island Plastic Surgical Group. He serves as a clinical professor at the Mayo Clinic of Arizona’s Plastic Surgery Division and is a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
Dr. Radbeh Torabi completed his research fellowship at the Transplantation Biology Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, focusing on transplantation protocols and complex tissue transplantation. His plastic surgery residency at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center provided extensive experience in autologous breast reconstruction and perforator-based free flaps.
Beyond performing these surgeries, our team has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed medical journals, establishing ourselves as pioneers in advanced techniques of reconstructive breast surgery in AZ. This commitment to advancing medical knowledge ensures you benefit from cutting-edge techniques.
Personalized, Compassionate Care
We customize every treatment plan to your individual anatomy, medical history, and aesthetic goals. We believe the most informed patients are the most satisfied with their reconstructive results, which is why we prioritize education and shared decision-making between patients and physicians.
We treat every patient like family. You’ll work with the same surgical team from initial consultation through final results. We maintain 24/7 availability. An answering service connects you directly with Dr. Rozbeh or Dr. Radbeh Torabi anytime. We’ve come in on weekends, evenings, and holidays because your peace of mind matters to us.
We are trusted for breast reconstruction in Phoenix by women. Our reputation stems from consistently excellent surgical results combined with genuine compassion for the emotional journey breast cancer survivors navigate.
Beginning Your Reconstruction Journey
Breast reconstruction represents a deeply personal decision with profound effects on your physical and emotional recovery from breast cancer. Whether you choose microsurgical techniques using your own tissue, implant-based approaches, or a combination, our goal remains to help you feel whole, confident, and empowered.
We invite you to schedule a consultation at our Phoenix location to explore your options in detail. During this comprehensive meeting, we’ll review your medical history, examine your body, explain all available reconstruction techniques, and answer every question you have about the process.
Many women find that post-mastectomy reconstruction forms the final step in their cancer recovery journey. We understand this process involves significant emotional components alongside physical restoration. Elite Plastic Surgery has earned recognition for excellence and maintains an unwavering commitment to the most advanced reconstruction techniques available. Contact us at (480) 291-6895 or [email protected] to receive the individualized care and attention you deserve.