Overview
Male Chest Reconstruction usually precedes below the waist surgery for FTM patients as protruding breast contours are a sin quo non of the female presentation.
While for very small breasts a peri-areolar skin excision can be performed, the problem of maintaining an adequate pedicle to support the nipple areolar complex without protrusion of the pedicle through the skin becomes challenging. Bringing skin into the borders of a contracted areola will cause puckering which hopefully with time will smooth out. A permanent fixation suture is often required to prevent tension on the suture line from causing a slowly expanding scar.
A transverse inframammary incision with free nipple areolar grafts is my preferred approach. If there is too much blousing of the skin, the alternatives are to extend the incision laterally (chasing a dog ear) or to make a vertical midline incision (inverted T).
The areola is trimmed to a pre agreed upon diameter and the nipple sectioned with a pie shaped excision and reconstituted. Although the patient must be cautioned there may be varying sensory loss because of nerve disruption, our limited experience has been favorable in this regard as distal nerves are known to regenerate.
Nipple areolar grafts must be kept wet with saline soaked gauze re-moistened every 3 hours for at least 5 days to maintain tissue viability until capillary buds grow into the graft.
Plan on having a roommate or spouse do this for you throughout the night. Some crusting of the grafts is not unusual and will usually shed by the 3 or 4th week. By all means do not lift or pick them off as the adherence of the graft may be very tenuous and its viability very fragile.
After tissue settling some revision surgery may be required and is usually done for a nominal fee relating only to use of the facility and anesthetic services if required (as opposed to being done under local)
Procedure
You will have a general anaesthetic, and will be asleep for the whole operation. The surgeon normally makes a cut around part of the nipple. He takes out the breast tissue. The overlying skin and nipple stay there. The cut is stitched up. Afterwards the chest looks pretty normal for a male. The operation can either be done as a day case, which means that you come into hospital on the day of the operation and go home the same day, or as an in-patient case, which means spending one or two nights in hospital. Your surgeon will have discussed with you which operation you will be having.
Complications
Complications are minimal and seldom serious. If you think that all is not well, please ask the nurses or doctors. Bruising may be troublesome. Occasionally some old blood collects under the wound, but this can easily be removed. Occasionally the wound edge and nipple do not heal well in places. This always settles down but may take 2 or 3 weeks to do so. Infection is a rare problem and settles down with antibiotics in a week or two.
There may be some numbness around the nipple. This gets better over a month or more.There may be some flatness of the chest, but this improves over 6 months or so.
Recovery after a Mastectomy
After a mastectomy, an oxygen mask may be given to those with a history of chest problems and a drip tube is often fixed to the arm vein. The drain is removed after one to three days, but until then, the wound is dressed regularly to keep it clean. Purple and yellow bruising around the wound is common but should fade away after a few weeks. Similarly, swelling around the skin may occur and again this is only temporary. In both cases you should contact the doctor if these side effects persist. The wound itself takes three months to completely heal and complications are rare.
However if you find after this period that there is a collection of old blood under the wound, bruising, slow healing and numbness of the wound edge and nipple, infections, and flatness of the chest, again contact your doctor. Antibiotics or additional treatments are usually in order.
For more information, medical assessment and medical quote
as email attachment to
Email : - info@wecareindia.com
Contact Center Tel. (+91) 9029304141 (10 am. To 8 pm. IST)
(Only for international patients seeking treatment in India)
Abdomino-Perineal Resection 
Abscess-Intra Abdominal 
Amputation -Above Knee 
Abscess -Pelvic 
Epididymal Cyst Removal 
Abdominal Hernia 
