"This procedure gives the additional benefit of a tummy tuck"

06/24/2002

Dr. Karen Johnson / 11 News

HOUSTON (KHOU) -- Women who develop breast cancer requiring mastectomies often choose to undergo breast reconstruction. Now a new procedure is reducing their pain and their recovery time.

Doctors who performed breast reconstruction routinely removed a portion of the abdominal muscle, blood vessels, fat and skin, then used those tissues to form a new breast. But this resulted in abdominal complications that caused pain and weakness.

Now advances in microsurgery allow physicians to spare the abdominal muscle. And that has helped Lelia Stone, an active, 45-year-old mother of two, who recently underwent a mastectomy.

"I love to snow ski, go boating, snorkeling," Stone says. "Deep sea fishing is one of my biggest loves."

And when she was diagnosed with cancer in both breasts, it came as a blow. "Total shock," she recalls. "Disbelief. Death sentence. Just the worst you could possibly imagine."

After consulting with Dr. Aldona Spiegel, a plastic surgeon, Stone chose to have a double mastectomy followed by reconstruction.

"A lot of women have excess tissue in the abdominal area," Spiegel says. "And skin and fat are really the best ways to reconstruct the breast, because they feel the same natural way that a breast feels.

Spiegel reconstructed the breasts by dissecting vessels from the muscle. Then she removed fat, skin and tiny vessels, which she then reattached to other vessels at the breast.

"So this procedure gives the additional benefit of a tummy tuck, without giving any problems with functional compromise due to muscle loss," Spiegel says.

"Like a washboard" is how Stone describes her stomach. "It's wonderful. It feels great, like when I was 18."

If you have to undergo a mastectomy, do your research and talk to your doctor about the reconstructive options best for you.