Tissue Engineering Treatment for the Nipple-Sharing Donor Site

Excerpt

The nipple-sharing technique for nipple reconstruction offers excellent shape, color and texture matches, and long-term projection [1, 2]. However, the use of this technique depends on the size of the contralateral nipple; local flaps are alternatively preferred in patients with normal or smaller nipples [3]. In the field of regenerative medicine, when there is a “space” in the living body, it affords a good microenvironment for cell survival, and various types of cells involved in wound healing migrate into the space and obliterate it [4]. According to this theory, when the space following donor nipple harvest is filled with a basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF)-soaked collagen sponge to maintain the space, instead of primary closure, newly formed tissue may augment and or prevent shrinkage of the donor nipple, increasing the number of indications for the nipple-sharing technique. We herein report a new treatment for donor nipple called the “tissue engineering technique.” …