TISSUE EXPANSION IN RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY: APPRAISAL OF EL-MINIA EXPERIENCE.

The use of tissue expanders in reconstructive surgery has become well established and found wide applicability, but their 
use has been associated with multiple complications. Recent advances in the technical aspects of tissue expanders and 
developed experience led to an overall reduction in the high rate of these complications. 
Over about 5 years, a total of 90 tissue expanders were inserted for the reconstruction of different lesions in 51 patients 
using the same surgical protocol. These cases were done in the Plastic Surgery Unit at El-Minia University Hospital. In 29 
cases (56.9%), more than one expander were used in the same patient simultaneously. Of the 90 expansions there were 78 complete successes (86.6%), 2 failures (2.2%), and 10 expanders had to be removed prematurely (11.1%). Seventy-one 
expanders (78.8%) were new and 19 (21.1%) were re-used for the same patients after being cleansed and autoclaved. Sixty-one injection ports (67.7%) were inserted internally and 29 (32.2%) were exteriorized. Overall outcome in most cases (86.6%) was excellent; however, complications were common. 
This study summarizes the experience in using tissue expansion in reconstructive surgery in the Plastic Surgery Unit. It 
came to the conclusion that tissue expansion is a good and safe technique that allows the surgeon to overcome many 
qualitative and quantitative tissue deficiencies in selected cases. The re-use of the expanders for the same patient does not increase the rate of infection or extrusion, while exteriorization of the valve, specially in the scalp, increases rate of infection. 
The outcomes from tissue expansion procedures done in this series are similar to most of those reported in the literature.