Commentary on “Delayed, two-staged autologous breast reconstruction: an approach to improving delayed reconstructive outcomes” by AA Patel, L Cai, S Moshrefi, IC Sando, GK Lee & RS Nazerali

Abstract

Dear Sir, We read with great interest the article entitled ‘Delayed, two-staged autologous breast reconstruction: an approach to improving delayed reconstructive outcomes’ [1]. The authors describe a distinct two-stage breast reconstruction for patients who elect to undergo autologous reconstruction, with tissue expander placement after the initial mastectomy. It is an appealing technique which mitigates the drawbacks of the commonly utilised muscle-sparing transverse rectus abdominal (MS-TRAM) or deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) flaps, including quality and texture mismatch, hair-bearing tissue transfer and scarring. We commend the authors on their outcomes presented in this study, but have a few reservations on the patient selection, surgical technique and outcome measures: