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Press Releases
The Paradigm Shift of Breast Reconstruction
For women who are facing breast cancer, undergoing surgery may offer the best chance to beat the disease, but it can also come at the cost of their natural appearance. A collaboration between the New York Group for Plastic Surgery and the Ashikari Breast Center at Hudson Valley Hospital Center ensures that women never have to sacrifice aesthetics for a cure.
At the turn of the last decade, C. Andrew Salzberg, M.D., plastic and reconstructive surgeon at Hudson Valley Hospital Center and associate professor and Chief of the Division of Plastic Surgery at New York Medical College, created an alternative to traditional breast reconstruction. He developed a shortened, more patient-centric procedure, which he and the New York Group for Plastic Surgery have pioneered ever since: the nipple-sparing, single-stage implant reconstruction.
“For the first time, this technique allows me to place an implant at the same time as breast cancer surgery without the tissue expander, which was previously the standard technique,” says Dr. Salzberg. “We’ve been doing it now for 10 years, and we haven’t looked back.”
The Aesthetic Touch
Dr. Salzberg collaborates with a breast surgeon at the Ashikari Breast Center to treat patients undergoing a mastectomy for cancer or a preventive mastectomy who choose to have immediate reconstruction surgery. Following the curative procedure, in which the breast tissue is removed, he places an implant beneath the pectoralis muscle, covering the top half of the implant with the patient’s own muscle.
A material called AlloDerm — a sheet of collagen without cells — is then sutured to the pectoralis muscle, pulled over the exposed lower portion of the implant and sutured to the inframammary fold. The procedure eliminates the need for a second surgery to remove a tissue expander while avoiding any damage to the nipple. The reconstructive technique also offers the advantage of preserving or enhancing the patient’s appearance by increasing or reducing the breast size and lifting the breasts.
“Years ago, women would be left horribly disfigured by breast cancer surgery, but the ability to cure the cancer and transform the breasts’ look has revised that outcome,” says Dr. Salzberg. “There’s been a paradigm shift in the aesthetic capability of surgeons to reconstruct the breast, and this operation has led the way.”
Side By Side
In addition to the offices in Goshen and Tarrytown, the New York Group for Plastic Surgery — in partnership with the Ashikari Breast Center — treats patients from all over the country at the newly opened Comprehensive Cancer Care Center at Hudson Valley Hospital Center. The coordinated effort of breast and plastic surgeons, medical oncologists, and radiation oncologists allows a patient to meet with each specialist involved in her treatment in one day.
Women can also undergo biopsy, breast magnetic resonance imaging, mammogram or ultrasound and have the results within the same day. The all-inclusive center provides the curative therapies to address a woman’s breast cancer while also offering the aesthetic and timely services to eliminate her anxiety.
