A curious instance of an immediate abandoned “delayed” immediate DIEP
Siri B. Gowda, Vikram Sinha, Pennylouise Hever, Charlotte L. Bendon, Martin E. Jones · 2026
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Description
Gowda and co-authors report a 72-year-old woman whose bilateral breast reconstruction was abandoned mid-operation after both abdominal DIEP flaps had been fully raised, when she developed multiple heart rhythm disturbances under anesthesia. The DIEP flap, the gold standard for using a patient's own tissue, is sometimes deliberately delayed to boost blood supply, but normally only for about two weeks.
Her flaps were simply put back, then re-raised and successfully transferred a full 10 weeks after the primary surgery, a delay the authors believe is the first of its kind reported. Scarring around the vascular pedicle and a seroma, a fluid collection, actually eased the repeat dissection in their operative account. The trade-off was a stiffer pedicle demanding extra care during inset to prevent twisting or kinking that could choke blood flow. They present the case as proof an abandoned immediate reconstruction can be salvaged late.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Siri B. Gowda, Vikram Sinha, Pennylouise Hever, Charlotte L. Bendon, Martin E. Jones |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 7 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |