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PubMed · 12465425

Office education: sharing your knowledge.

Judy Akin
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Abstract

The author's passion for plastic surgery nursing emerged from a life-changing experience involving skin grafting and skin reconstruction on her face from basal cell carcinoma. After many more skin cancer excisions, she decided to leave the hospital environment to pursue further study and work in the field of dermatology and wound care. This helped to expand her specialized knowledge of skin anatomy/physiology and prepare for a career in plastic/reconstructive surgery. During her masters degree program, the author developed educational guidelines and materials to facilitate her new role in plastic surgery as a nurse/patient/community educator. She finished her masters degree in nursing education and completed her clinical preceptor/internship with two board certified plastic and reconstructive surgeons in December of 2000.

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Breast ImplantationHumansPatient Education as TopicPostoperative CarePreoperative CareUnited StatesJournal Article

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Judy Akin. 2002. Office education: sharing your knowledge.. https://doi.org/10.1097/00006527-200222030-00015

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A single surgeon's 12-year experience with tissue expander/implant breast reconstruction: part I. A prospective analysis of early complications.

BACKGROUND: Multiple prior reports are conflicted regarding the true incidence of complications following implant-based breast reconstruction. A review of a single surgeon's extensive experience with tissue expander/implant reconstruction provides the opportunity to critically evaluate outcomes in a uniformly treated patient population. The objective of this study was to analyze the development of early complications in patients following two-stage implant breast reconstruction. METHODS: A review of all tissue expander/implant reconstructions performed by a single surgeon over the 12-year period from July of 1992 to June of 2004 was performed. A prospectively maintained database was analyzed with respect to reconstructive and early complication data on 1522 reconstructions in 1221 patients. Early complications were defined as those occurring 12 months or less from initiation of reconstruction. RESULTS: The overall rate of early complications was 5.8 percent; the rate of premature expander removal was 2.7 percent. The most common complication was infection (2.5 percent). The incidence of complications after tissue expander insertion (8.5 percent) was significantly higher than that after the exchange procedure (2.7 percent). The rate of complications was significantly higher in patients with a history of preoperative chest wall irradiation. There was no difference in the incidence of complications in patients who were expanded during chemotherapy and those who were not. CONCLUSIONS: Tissue expander/implant reconstruction is a safe, reliable method of reconstruction with minimal early complications. Early complications are more common after expander insertion. Chemotherapy administered during tissue expansion does not increase the rate of complications. The rate of complications, although higher in previously irradiated patients, remains low.

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