Tissue Expansion

A way of "making" more skin...

Tissue expansion enables the body to "grow" extra skin for use in reconstructing almost any part of the body. The procedure is used widely in breast reconstruction and scalp reconstruction. A tissue expander is a silicone plastic balloon buy may not necessarily be round. It is placed under the skin and then increased in size with weakly injections of sterile salt water. In this manner, Dr. Bentkover can create more skin for reconstructing a defect of your face or scalp. Often, the expander is placed 3 or 4 months before a Mohs Excision for skin cancer. That way, when the tumor is excised, he will have enough skin in the area to reconstruct the defect with an appropriate skin flap.

Dr. Bentkover uses tissue expansion most commonly for repairing or replacing areas of the scalp, most commonly in conjunction with skin cancer removal. Tissue expansion is ideal for scalp repair, because the "expanded" skin on the scalp retains normal hair growth. Following tissue expansion, the repaired scalp looks very natural. Tissue expansion also generally produces excellent results when reconstructing other areas of the face and neck, the hands, arms, and legs.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Before tissue expansion, surgeons were often limited with regard to the types of skin flaps and skin grafts they could use to reconstruct damaged or missing tissue on the body. Tissue expansion provides an a technique with several advantages. First, tissue expansion offers an excellent match of color, texture, and hair-bearing qualities. Second, because the skin remains connected to the donor area's blood and nerve supply, there is a smaller risk that it will die after being moved into the area to be reconstructed. And thirdly, the blood supply to the expanded skin is often better than the the original skin in the area.

The only significant drawbacks of tissue expansion are the length of time required to grow additional skin and the number of weekly office visits required to accomplish that. The process usually takes 3-4 months. Duringthat time there may be a visible bulge in the area of expansion as the expander is gradually enlarged with weekly injections. Despite these drawbacks, tissue expansion can produce very natural looking results.