PAP flaps after a robotic nipple-sparing mastectomy

The single-port robotic nipple-sparing mastectomy removes the breast through a small incision in the armpit, leaving no scar on the breast itself. In the practice’s experience it also preserves sensation better than a conventional approach.

The technique is new, and most centres offering it reconstruct with an implant. That is a reasonable option for many patients, but using a patient’s own tissue has advantages an implant cannot match, and doing it through this incision is often described as very difficult or impossible.

This patient had her reconstruction with PAP flaps — skin and fat from the posterior thigh, transferred with its own blood supply. The result is completely natural and permanent, and the donor scar sits in the fold below the buttock, where it is relatively well hidden.