Has anyone had a litimas flap and some tissue die & it wont close/heal?

04/24/08

kim

I had a double masc 1-21-08 a few weeks later my house flooded & I ended up splitting both incisons open.Dr said since I had radition on rt boob [2006] it wont stay closed so he said he needed to do a litimas flap (muscle & fat taken from back & put on front) ok this was done 2-21-08. On 3-11-08 dr had to cut off some of the tissue that died.(it was only about a inch) Well that wont stay closed he would try to resew but it wont heal.Now 4-22-08 he took all the stiches out and I have a 4 in hole in my chest. He has me packing it with saline gauze. Has this happened to anyone? How long was the healing time? Any sugestions? This hurts like crazy and it is gross to look at. I dont like seeing my insides.

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Thursday, April 24, 2008

PJ Hamel

Kim, this actually happened to a friend of mine. Sometimes a latissimus flap (or a tram flap) can be a very, very long process, with two steps back for every step forward. In my friend's case, things turned out well in the end. I hope the same for you. I also hope you're at a good medical center with excellent surgeons - necrosis (your tissue dying) is something that can happen to anyone, it's not a surgical "mistake," but I do hope you're getting good care. Stay in touch here, OK? - PJH

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Friday, April 25, 2008

Angi

I've actually had a very simular experience last year.

My first attempt at reconstructing my R breast failed due to tissue dying, yet the doctor had no problem with closing it. When I tried reconstruction again in 07 with a tissue expander, everything worked fine.

At that same time I had my L breast removed and attempted immediate reconstruction with a tissue expander. Weeks later I found the tissue at the incision site turning black and dying. My plastic surgeon was out of town, so I was sent to the on-call PS. He removed the stitches, and gave us this nasty green cream that ate away the dead tissue. It left me with at least a quarter size hole in my breast, that the hubby had to pack with guaze daily. It took 3 months for that hole to heal from the inside out, to that of a pencil shape hole. At that time my PS took me back in to put in a new tissue expander (cause mine had to be popped and pulled out when at one point you could see it through my huge hole!) and he also cleaned out the inside of that area and closed it. I still have some hardness on that side, but he is not concerned with it - saying that when it's time to swap out the tissue expander for an implant, he will remove all of the hardness and clean it up so it looks great.

I may not have had any type of flap procedure done, but the hole was the worst surgical experience ever! Once your's heals from the inside out, I'm sure your doctor will fix it! It's nasty and gross to have, but if you can make it through this experience, you can do it all!

Hope that helps some. If you need anything else, don't hesitate to ask!

Angi