In a group of patients where breast reconstruction was performed at th
e time of mastectomy, the incidence of complications was studied. One
hundred one consecutive patients had an autologous reconstruction usin
g the transverse rectus abdominis musculocutaneous flap, and 115 conse
cutive patients had a prosthetic reconstruction with tissue expanders
or with tissue expander and/or implant. One patient in the autologous
reconstruction group had a cardiac arrhythmia requiring monitoring, bu
t there were no other serious complications. Infection was more common
in the group undergoing prosthetic reconstruction (5% compared with 3
% in the autologous reconstruction group). A total of 8% of the patien
ts in the group undergoing prosthetic reconstruction had to have their
implants removed because of infection or exposure of the implant. Sev
en percent of the transverse rectus abdominis musculocutaneous flap pa
tients had significant necrosis of a portion of the flap. Secondary su
rgical revision of the reconstructed breast was much more common (20%)
in the prosthetic reconstruction group compared with 6% in the autolo
gous reconstruction group.