2019•Unpublished venueRequires access
Tissue Expansion
Shannon Malloy, Laura C. Nuzzi, Catherine McNamara, Brian I. Labow
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Abstract
Tissue expansion is a well-recognized surgical technique vastly used throughout reconstructive plastic surgery which encourages creation and recruitment of local soft tissues for reconstructive purposes. The most common indications for tissue expansions are burns, pigmented legions, and breast reconstruction. Expansion involves placing a subcutaneous prosthesis called an expander in the area of interest and slowly enlarging the expander with saline over a period of six to twelve weeks. Tissue expansion is a relatively safe procedure used to resolve defects in both adults and children with low complication rates. New innovations such as inflating with carbon dioxide in place of saline and using three-dimensional analysis to customize expanders for each patient work to reduce pain, increase expansion control, and optimize the tissue expansion experience. This review contains 9 figures, 4 tables, and 40 references. Keywords: tissue, tissue expansion, reconstructive surgery, expander, saline injection, burns, breast reconstruction, large congenital nevi