Patients who aren’t candidates for traditional breast implants now have another option, if they’re willing to say goodbye to some of their buttocks.
Stacey Nance manages a mega mall: the Tampa Premium Outlets.
“Everything from the roof all the way down to the ground is my responsibility,” Nance told Ivanhoe.
But managing her health lately has also been a full-time job.
Nance said, “I’ve had such extreme surgeries and such procedures and trying to recover.”
Here’s why: Nance tested positive for the BRCA1 gene, so she had a double mastectomy, then breast reconstruction where her backside played a big part.
“I had never heard of it,” Nance said.
Luckily, Raj S. Ambay, MD, DDS, a Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon and Florida Hospital Surgeon had. He recommended a procedure called SGAP: superior gluteal artery perforator.
“You’re using tissue that most people are happy to get rid of,” Dr. Ambay said.
Dr. Ambay says he takes excess tissue from the buttocks. Then a breast is made from that tissue.
“We only take the skin and fat and we dissect these tiny little perforators. They’re almost like the size of a tip of a ballpoint pen and then we remove that tissue, make a breast on the back table at the same time the surgeon is removing the breast for the mastectomy,” Dr. Ambay explained.
Doctors then carefully reconnect all the blood vessels. Nance says it took two 12-hour surgeries.
“Everything is very natural. You know I don’t have a foreign object in my body.” Nance said.
Dr. Ambay says pain is minimal because he doesn’t take out nerves or cut the muscle.
“Modern medicine at its finest absolutely,” Nance said.
Helping patients regain their good health and get back to work after surgery.
The first 24 hours after procedure patients need to be checked making sure vessels connect. Dr. Ambay says there’s less chance of infection because it utilizes that patient’s own tissue.
Contributors to this news report include: Emily Maza Gleason, Field Producer; Chris Tilley, Videographer; Cyndy McGrath, Supervising Producer; Hayley Hudson, Assistant Producer; Roque Correa, Editor.
