Open AccessCorrelating the deep inferior epigastric artery branching pattern with type of abdominal free flap performed in a series of 145 breast reconstruction patients
Author(s) -
A. Reche Molina,
ME Jones,
Anita Hazari,
I R Francis,
Charles Nduka
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
annals of the royal college of surgeons of england
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.39
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1478-7083
pISSN - 0035-8843
DOI - 10.1308/003588412x13171221592050
Subject(s) - medicine , breast reconstruction , branching (polymer chemistry) , series (stratigraphy) , surgery , mammaplasty , breast cancer , cancer , paleontology , materials science , composite material , biology
The deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) flap is currently viewed as the gold standard in autologous breast reconstruction. We studied three-dimensional computed tomography angiography (CTA) in 145 patients undergoing free abdominal flap breast reconstruction to try to correlate deep inferior epigastric artery (DIEA) branching pattern with the type of flap performed and patient outcome. Today, reconstructive breast surgeons have become more experienced in raising DIEP flaps and operative times are becoming more acceptable. However, there remains significant interest in finding ways to aid this challenging dissection.