Treatment of Irradiated Expanders: Protective Lipofilling Allows Immediate Prosthetic Breast Reconstruction in the Setting of Postoperative Radiotherapy

Background Immediate two-stage prosthetic breast reconstruction in the setting of postmastectomy radiotherapy (PMRT) currently is hardly achieved with the fast-track expander exchange proposed by Cordeiro and colleagues or the delayed-immediate breast reconstruction proposed by Kronowitz and Robb. Each of these techniques has important drawbacks and complications. To overcome these problems, the authors in 2011 described lipofilling on irradiated expanders in patients undergoing unplanned PMRT (Cagliari University Hospital [CUH] protocol) for early breast cancers with specific risk factors. The authors report their experience after expanding the use of such a protocol for any immediate expander/implant reconstruction in a patient undergoing PMRT.