If you choose to have immediate reconstruction, you will likely stay in the hospital for one to two days after the combined mastectomy and tissue expander or implant surgery. When the reconstruction is delayed, your hospital stay will probably be about 24 hours. If you have a tissue expander, the second operation, in which the tissue expander is replaced with an implant, will require a hospital stay of four to 24 hours. Although every woman s recovery time is different, most women will be able to resume many of their regular activities after one week. After implant placement surgery, three to four weeks may be required before patients can perform more strenuous activities or return to work.
Implant surgery produces relatively predictable breast shapes in most women.
Therefore, you may have more realistic expectations about the surgery. Implant surgery leaves fewer scars. Reconstruction with implants usually results in only one or two scars around the breast. Often the mastectomy scar is used as the site of the new incision so you will have no additional scars after the reconstruction.