Dr. Joshua A. Greenwald is a renowned breast augmentation specialist who provides a wide range of procedures to enhance the breasts. In addition to breast lift, breast reduction and breast implant revisions, he offers breast reconstruction surgery for women in Westchester County who have lost one or both breasts due to mastectomy or trauma.
Dr. Joshua Greenwald recognizes that the loss of a breast is a potentially traumatic experience faced by many women each year. He also respects each woman’s right to make a personal decision regarding whether or not to undergo breast reconstruction to restore a lost breast. While many women choose not to have breast reconstruction surgery, others find that breast reconstruction brings some sense of normalcy and wholeness to their lives following their loss. For these breast reconstruction patients, Dr. Joshua Greenwald is highly skilled in a variety of techniques designed to restore women’s natural bustline and enhance their self-esteem.
In many instances, Dr. Greenwald can perform “immediate” breast reconstruction surgery, in which the breast reconstruction surgery is performed during the same operation as the mastectomy. In other cases, he provides “delayed” breast reconstruction, in which the procedure is performed after the breast reconstruction patient has healed from the mastectomy. In either case, Dr. Greenwald may use silicone or saline breast implants, tissue transferred from elsewhere on the body or both implants and body tissue to reconstruct the breasts.
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Breast Reconstruction with Breast Implantsy
Dr. Greenwald often uses expanders and implants as part of the breast reconstruction procedure. When performing immediate breast reconstruction, the expander is placed at the time of the mastectomy. The expander is then gradually expanded until it is large enough to be replaced with a silicone or saline breast implant in a subsequent surgical procedure.
One complication of breast reconstruction using implants is that the implants are often palpable or show rippling. This is especially common in thin women with less tissue to cover the breast. In these cases, a product known as Alloderm can be used to increase implant coverage. Alloderm is tissue manufactured from donated human skin that can be used in a variety of surgical procedures. Dr. Greenwald, a leading breast reconstruction specialist, can use it to provide more shape to the fold beneath the breasts and to add padding on the sides of the breasts.
Tissue Flap Breast Reconstruction with Dr. Greenwald
Another option for the breast reconstruction procedure is a tissue flap procedure. The two most common tissue flap procedures performed by Dr. Greenwald are the latissimus dorsi flap and the transverse rectus abdominus muscle (TRAM) flap. In the latissimus dorsi procedure, muscle and skin is taken from the back and moved to the chest to replace skin and tissue removed during the mastectomy. In some cases, this procedure may be performed at the same time as the mastectomy, reducing the number of surgeries required and eliminating the need for a tissue expander. In addition, the latissimus dorsi may provide enough tissue to eliminate the need for an implant. A breast reconstruction using only the patient’s own tissue is known as autologous reconstruction.
In the rectus abdominus procedure, the other main flap procedure, skin, fat and muscle are taken from the patient’s lower abdomen and used to reconstruct the breast mound. Although recovery from an abdominal flap procedure takes longer than from a latissimus dorsi procedure, the result can often be a natural-feeling breast to restore the patient’s feminine physique and boost her self-confidence.
