While plastic surgeries are often associated with beauty enhancements and aesthetic goals, this speciality also plays a significant role in effective cancer management. Some cancer treatment like surgery and radiation therapy often damage the essential tissues or organs and affect the function or body appearance. Reconstructive surgeries like
cosmetic and plastic surgery in Jaipur can help repair those changes and restore the functions and appearance of affected areas. These procedures can also be performed to repair severed nerves and tiny blood vessels with precision. Hence, they’ve made a tremendous impact on the health and wellbeing of cancer patients. Read on to learn more about their role in a cancer hospital in Jaipur.
What is the role of cosmetic and plastic surgeries in cancer care?
Cancer and its complications can affect practically any area of the body, and to manage every potential situation, the approach of cancer management must be extensive. While cancer surgery and radiation treatments can cure cancer by destroying or removing cancer tissues, they also affect the healthy tissues and organs near the tumour. In addition to tissue loss, these approaches for cancer treatments can also cause structural damage to normal tissues in your skin, muscles, nerves and even bones. Hence, a multidisciplinary team approach has become a critical component of that treatment, which can restore form and function to the affected areas.
In these situations, plastic surgeons and
skin cancer doctors in Jaipur perform various reconstructive surgery to reverse these unwanted effects that negatively affect the patients’ overall health and wellbeing. These surgeries can also be performed to restore or replace healthy tissues in the affected area to help restore normal function and appearance.
What is the purpose of reconstructive surgeries?
While some of us have associated reconstructive surgery with optional cosmetic procedures like weight loss and neck lift procedures, it can also play a significant role in improving the treatment and recovery of cancer patients. Apart from improving the contour and aesthetics of your body, these surgeries can also restore the appearance of cancer affected parts of your body and can improve your quality of life. These procedures aim to help:
- Restore function: In most cases, when surgeons remove tumours to cure cancer, they also remove nearby tissues, bones or organs. It may affect body functions. For example, head and neck cancer treatment can change the shape of your jaw, mouth or tongue, which makes speaking and eating difficult. Hence, reconstructive facial plastic surgery is performed to rebuild and reshape these areas. It not only improves the function of your mouth, but also restores the appearance. Hence, you look and feel more normal than before surgery.
- Restore form: Some cancer and their treatment can also affect the appearance of your body. A mastectomy is the most viable treatment For breast cancer patients in which their whole breast tissues are removed surgically. Hence, most breast cancer survivors choose to restore their breast appearance through breast reconstruction surgery. In skin cancer, a skin graft is used to heal scars and restore the skin’s appearance.
What are the types of these surgeries?
Plastic surgical procedures have enabled oncologists to extend the capabilities of surgical and radiation therapy. These therapies often leave large resection defects that involve functional structures, aesthetically sensitive areas. These procedures can also be used to reduce the risk for wound-healing complications through successful reconstruction with a wide variety of techniques.
In reconstructive surgery, plastic surgeons often use tissue from a donor or patient’s body to restore or repair the affected area. In head and neck cancer, surgical treatment might alter the shape of the patient’s jawbone and take bone and tissues from the patient’s leg to repair the jaw. It will restore the appearance of the patient’s jaw while ensuring it works normally.
These
types of cancer surgery are known as autologous reconstruction and use tissues from the patient’s own body. The surgeon will use tiny stitches to connect the tissue and arteries that are only visible under a microscope.
Other types of reconstructive surgeries performed in cancer treatment include:
- Skin, tendon, and bone graft replacement surgery: Your surgeon will take healthy tissue from another part of your body and transplant them to the area that needs repair.
- Local flap surgery. Your surgeon will use tissue from a nearby area and cover the damaged area. It will speed up healing and also reduce scarring.
- Artificial implants. Your surgeon will implant an artificial organ or implant during surgery to restore the functions in the affected area. They may use artificial or biological implants to replace jaw, breast or testicles removed during cancer treatment.
- Scar revisions. Your surgeon will perform cosmetic or plastic surgery to help repair scars from an earlier surgery.
