Scientists in Australia are pioneering a technique that could possibly be used to re-grow breasts on women who undergo mastectomy. Photo Credit: Video GrabNovember 14, 2009, (Sawf News) - Scientists in Australia are pioneering a technique that could possibly be used to re-grow breasts on women who undergo mastectomy, reports Sky News.
Currently surgeons reconstruct breasts using implants or fat graft harvested from elsewhere in the patient's body where it is in excess - like the abdomen, hips, thighs, or buttocks.
The new procedure, being developed at Melbourne-based Bernard O'Brien Institute of Microsurgery, has been successfully tested in pigs. It leverages the proclivity of living tissue to spread into any empty space within the body.
Breast shaped chambers containing small amounts of fat tissue, extracted from elsewhere in the patient's body, are placed under the skin. A blood vessel is connected to the fat tissue which then grows over the next six to eight months to fill up the chambers.
"Nature abhors a vacuum," says Dr. Phillip Marzella of the institute. "So the chamber itself, because it is empty, it tends to be filled in by the body."
The ultimate aim is to develop biodegradable chambers that would dissolve after they fill up.
"We are starting what is called a prototype trial in the next three to six months - a proof of principle trial with about five to six women, just to demonstrate that the body can re-grow its own fat supply in the breast," adds Dr. Marzella.
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