CHEST-WALL DEFORMITY FOLLOWING MAXIMAL TISSUE EXPANSION FOR BREAST RECONSTRUCTION

Forty-three women, in a series of 150, participated in a prospective s tudy that examined their chest walls for deformities 3 months after ma ximal tissue expansion for single-breast reconstruction, Computed tomo graphy imaging was used for this purpose, Twenty-one patients underwen t immediate breast reconstruction and the other 22 patients underwent delayed reconstruction, Fifty-three percent had some chest wall abnorm ality, In the delayed group, chest wall deformities were more statisti cally significant (p < 0.001). Our findings suggest that chest wall de formity is a common occurrence after maximal tissue expansion for brea st reconstruction.