The efficacy of the surgical delay procedure in pedicle TRAM breast reconstruction

Although experimental evidence suggests that the preliminary surgical delay procedure physiologically improves the circulation of the TRAM flap, there are no published controlled studies evaluating the clinical outcomes associated with this procedure. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the surgical flap delay versus no delay in consecutive patients having pedicle TRAM breast reconstruction. This was a retrospective cohort study of breast cancer patients at the University of Michigan who had pedicle TRAM reconstruction between January 2004 and March 2008. Prior to September 2005, all patients had pedicle TRAM reconstruction without the delay procedure. Starting in September 2005, all patients had the delay procedure prior to TRAM flap reconstruction. Descriptive statistics were used to compare demographic data, comorbidities, and complication rates between the 2 cohorts. Regression analysis was used to determine the effects of the surgical delay procedure on the incidence of flap ischemia and major and minor complications while controlling for patient and treatment level factors. Eighty-seven postmastectomy breast cancer patients had unipedicle TRAM flap reconstruction, in which 112 flaps were used to reconstruct breasts. The nondelay cohort consisted of 42 consecutive patients (51 flaps) and the delay cohort consisted of 45 consecutive patients (61 flaps). Of the patients without the surgical delay procedure 17.6% experienced at least one ischemic complication of the flap compared with 6.6% of those who were surgically delayed (P = 0.082). When controlling for patient and treatment level factors, the delay procedure was found to significantly decrease the incidence of flap ischemia (OR = 0.21, P = 0.018). In addition, there were no significant differences in the incidence of major or minor complication rates in the surgically delayed versus nondelayed groups (P = 0.247, P = 0.486, respectively). When patient and treatment level factors were taken into consideration, undergoing the delay procedure also did not increase the incidence of having a major or minor complication. These data support the use of the preliminary surgical delay procedure to decrease ischemic complications of the flap in pedicle TRAM postmastectomy breast reconstruction.