trans-flap

All I read about and there is not much is the negative part about the trans-flap, I would really love to hear some good news about it and also how long has the study been done for trans-flap 10, 15, 20 years? I would like to know because I am schedule in a couple of months to have this done.
Thank you

[SueYoung55]

There are some people who have had wonderful results with a TRAM flap. Then there are a lot more that have trouble. When you move such an important muscle then there is no support in your stomach for your lower back, to stop hernia's from happening. You can get all the benefit of the TRAM flap (old style reconstruction) with DIEP flap (10 years & counting) reconstruction. DIEP gives you the tummy tuck effect and does move your stomach skin and fat and blood supply up to your chest but it leaves those all important abdominal muscles in tact which gives you what you want without all those bad "negative" parts you mentioned. A TRAM flap can by done by almost any plastic surgeon. DIEP flap is done by micro-surgeon plastic surgeons. Feel free to look up Dr. Frank DellaCroce in New Orleans. I flew there to get my surgery done and he did a fabulous job. I'd recommend DIEP flap reconstruction any day but get it done by a doctor that does HUNDREDS of these surgeries a year with a failure rate of less than 1%.

Best wishes.

[rk713]

Let me add my recommendation to you to see if you can have the Diep procedure.  I had my surgery at NYU (New York) with Dr. Choi.  She did a wonderful job on my surgery in June.  She has done hundreds of  the Diep micro-surgeries and has not had failures.  My recovery was much, much better than I had expected since there was no stomach muscle involvement.  On day 3 (Sunday after Friday surgery) I was able to roll out of bed and use the bathroom, walk around the halls and get back into bed (slowly).  When I can home from the hospital on day 5 I was able to go up and down the steps in my house, roll out of bed and do all my personal things. There was discomfort but for me there was no real heavy pain.  The surgery is long (8-12 hours for a double) but the recovery was easier than with the Tram-flap.
Good luck making the decision and know which ever you do will be the right one for you. If you want more info e-mail me at ***@****
Rosalie

[Golilla]

I had a diepp flap done in 2005 and short of not having had cancer at all it is for me the best I could have hoped for.  No complications, releatively short recovery, and I even have quite a bit of feeling in the breast.  I had mine done in London, Canada and would recomend anyone to look into this procedure