A Comparison of Dermal Autograft to AlloDerm in Breast Reconstruction

Patients in the dermal autograft group will undergo harvest of a dermal autograft from the lower abdomen at the time of mastectomy, which will be used to cover the lower pole of the tissue expander.

The acellular dermal matrix used in our study is AlloDerm (LifeCell Corp., Branchburg, N.J.) The AlloDerm group will consist of patients without a suitable abdomen for autografting and those who declined the dermal autograft procedure. Patients in the dermal allograft group will have placement of AlloDerm over the lower pole of the tissue expander. Patients with a lower abdominal scar and sufficient abdominal laxity for autograft harvest will be offered this technique.