Topic: muscle sparing lat dorsi reconstruction

I am having a double lat flap on Tuesday, but what do you mean by muscle sparing? My Surgical Oncologist/Reconstructive PS is tunneling the muscle from back to make breast.

I, also, cannot imagine a lat dorsi flap without the lat dorsi.  When it is done conventionally, the muscle is tunneled under the arm to the chest wall.  Some of all of the muscle may be taken that way.  My surgeon said it is actually less traumatic to the body to take the whole muscle rather than part of it.

Another way to do the transfer under the arm, rather than make a large incision, is to do it endoscopically, through a couple of small incisions.  Result on the chest is the same but this leaves you with less scaring on the back.

I  had a third procedure, a free lat flap.  I do have the large scar on my back (healing very nicely) and the entire muscle was harvested, cut free, then transplanted onto my chest wall microscopically.  This is not typical as it involves much more sophisticated surgery than a regular lat flap.

Although my entire lat dorsi muscle was taken, I have absolutely no loss of strength on that side and I am less than 2 months post op.  Great results.  I wish you well with your surgery.