[Reconstruction of the breast after surgery for cancer (author's transl)]

The tendency towards less radical, stage-dependent procedures in the surgical management of breast cancer has opened the way to improvement in the reconstructive measures available. Reconstruction of the female breast can be undertaken with greater or lesser success and facility according to whether the initial procedure was subcutaneous mastectomy, modified radical mastectomy or the Rotter--Halstedt radical operation. The different plastic reconstructive methods developed over the past years are discussed and illustrated by cases treated under our care.