Cosmeticsurgeon.co.uk - UK Cosmetic Surgeons

For many women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, the potential loss of their breasts through mastectomy, which is an oftentimes life saving procedure, can prove intimidating and daunting. However, a new and rarely performed procedure known as nipple sparing mastectomy, may allow some patients to keep portions of their breasts despite the presence of multiple breast tumours that are widespread throughout the tissue.

Iraqi national Basma Ali Sultan, age 47 is one of the recent patients who has undergone this rare surgery. After grappling with her diagnosis and consistent discomfort in her breast for over a year following her breast cancer diagnosis last march, the doctors in her hometown in Iraq informed her that her only option was to remove the breast in its entirety.

In an effort to explore other options that would allow her to keep her breast, Basma traveled to India and scheduled an appointment with Dr. Anil Heroor, who is currently a cancer surgeon at Fortis Hospital. During her examination Dr. Heroor determined that due to multiple cancerous tumours located in her left breast, the breast conservation surgery that is most often performed would not be applicable in Basmas case. However, he thought she would be an excellent candidate for nipple sparing mastectomy, which is a breast conservation surgery that is specifically designed to work around tumours that have spread widely throughout the breast tissue, and, for many patients, it may help to maintain nipple sensitivity.

Basma was discharged from Fortis Hospital in India this past January following her nipple sparing mastectomy, through which the doctors were able to save both the nipple and the areola, and reconstruct the remainder of the entire breast. As the breast cancer survival rates climb, more patients than ever before are becoming concerned with preserving their physical appearance. Doctors have found that this helps to encourage their self esteem and self image, and increases the patients confidence post-surgery.

For more and more women, this surgery in addition to other breast conservation procedures are becoming a feasible option in helping women maintain the body that they had prior to their breast cancer diagnosis.

Each surgeon has a different story concerning what lead them to choose cosmetic surgery. Many join because of the joy that they believe people can gain through their services. Dr. Michael Obeng is the chief plastic surgeon at St. Elizabeth Boardman Health Center in Youngstown, Ohio and he told his story to WYTV 33.

Dr. Obeng grew up in Ghana and it is there, during his childhood, that he decided he would one day become a plastic surgeon. In 1985 he saw the results of a reconstructive surgery performed on his neighbor who had suffered a facial disfigurement. The surgeons were from Operation Smile, a not-for-profit, volunteer
medical services organization that provides reconstructive facial surgery to children and young adults all around the world. The results were motivational to him and he told WYTV, “She had a whole new different outlook on life. That really inspired me to be a doctor, specifically a plastic surgeon.”

Not many children in Ghana dream of becoming a plastic surgeon but that is exactly what Obeng dreamed of, and he would not allow himself to fail. He moved to the states in 1993, where he attended medical school. He took a fellowship at Harvard Medical School, while also being an assistant surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr Obeng said, “I never let anything deter me, because when you have a
dream, people say you can’t do it, but actually it motivates you and makes you work harder.”

He has performed over 400 procedures and is doing complex reconstructions, cosmetic surgery, and hand surgery. He says of his patients, “These are people that would rather be treated elsewhere. But with my skill set, we’re able to keep these sets of patients in the Youngstown area, and it has been very rewarding.” Dr. Obeng is proud to be able to provide a service that is so badly needed for many who have deformities and disfigurements.

He has also started an organization to help provide reconstructive surgeries in other countries. The organization is called Restore Worldwide and it stands for Restoring Emotional Stability Through Outstanding Reconstructive Efforts. This organization obviously stems from his experiences of the life changing effect that reconstructive surgery can have on a person. Some of his efforts have been geared toward surgeries on women who have congenital breast deformities from breast cancer.

He has a goal of traveling to a different country each year, and teaching the local surgeons how to perform these reconstructive procedures. He knows that his organization cannot help everyone in each area that he visits. He says that he wants to teach the local physicians, “So when we leave they can still continue to do some of the work that we’re not able to get to.”

Many people under go plastic surgery to help or treat a medical condition. Tumor removal is the most common cosmetic surgical procedure in this category and is performed on a variety of different tumors each year. Breast cancer survivors as well as some people who suffer from sleep apnea also have procedures done. Victims of disfiguring accidents usually need cosmetic surgery to return their bodies to normal and Connie Culp is such a person.

45 year old Connie Culp, of Union point Ohio, suffered a horrible disfigurement to her face, from a shot gun blast fired by her husband. The blast shattered her nose, cheeks, and the roof of her mouth. She lost one eye, much of the tissue in her mid face, and had to have a tube placed into her windpipe in order to breath. Her chin and lower lip, as well as her eyelids and forehead, were spared. After the shotgun pellets were removed, some initial surgery was done and then two months later she was able to visit a plastic surgeon.

She told Fox News that upon seeing her face, “He [Dr. Risal Djohan of the Cleveland Clinic] told me he didn’t think, he wasn’t sure, if he could fix me, but he’d try.” After 30 operations, where doctors took pieces of her ribs to make cheek bones and made an upper jaw from one of her leg bones, she was disappointed to find that she was not fixed. She was still forced to breathe through a tube and eat liquid foods.

Dr. Maria Siemionow then led a team of doctors to perform a facial transplant on Ms. Culp. In the 22 hour operation they replaced 80 percent of Connie’s face with parts from a woman’s face, who had just died. The procedure left her face looking much improved, though it sagged in places and was bloated in others. These features were necessary to help her facial nerves to reconnect to the new muscle and blood circulation to improve. Eventually, surgeons will be able to smooth these features out.

In the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery journal, Dr. Maria and some of her colleagues wrote, “We are pleased to report an excellent functional, psychological, and social outcome for our patient at eight months following transplantation.” The procedure was estimated by Siemionow to have cost between $250,000 and $300,000. Performing a dozen separate surgeries to accomplish the same affect could cost over $1 million.

Connie was very grateful for the successful procedure and is happy to be able to rejoin society without looking like a ‘monster’. Facial transplants are still experimental, with only a few having been performed around the world. This procedure is wonderful and could prove to help many victims of terrible accidents.

Reconstruction is an option for women following a Masectomy

Research from the University of Michigan Medical Centre shows that only a small percentage of American women choose reconstructive surgery following a mastectomy. It suggests that not enough women are being educated on the options surrounding the breast removal procedure which can be carried out on women with breast cancer.

In this country, patients can learn about the health benefits and problems that could be a consequence. Charities such as the Macmillan Cancer Support offer patients advice in the area.
In the modern day surgical techniques have improved a lot over the years and as a result, surgeons at the University of Michigan have found the results of the study surprising.

Speaking on an online form hosted by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, Anne Alderman said that women are not being educated about these options.

In the UK, women can consult their surgeon before a masectomy concerning reconstructive surgery, which involves a number of different forms. Firstly implants used in breast enlargement surgeries. Secondly ‘tissue flap construction’ in which skin and fat from the lower abdomen is grafted onto the breast area via a tunnel through the body to the chest, and thirdly free flap reconstruction involving the same thing but by separating the original tissue through microsurgery. The use of these three techniques depend on various factors.

Breast related surgeries are actually on the increase in the United Kingdom with Breast enlargements rising to nearly 6,500 in the last year. In the US, breast lifts and breast lift/enlargement combination surgeries also rose.

If true, the findings that women might not be getting reconstructive surgeries could be due to a number of factors. The study did not show how medical considerations affected the results, as some women might not have been correct candidates for the operation.

The options will depend on the amount of the breast removed in a masectomy, the healthiness of the tissue involved and whether radiotherapy has been used in the treatment. Of course the choice of the women could also be playing a role.

Whatever the case, surgeons urge patients in the UK to consult doctors or surgeons before making decisions in this area.

Sources: USA Today and News Leader Missouri