SIEA Flap

Superficial Inferior Epigastric Artery Flap

This procedure also uses living tissue from the abdomen for the breast reconstruction procedure. The difference is the use of blood vessels under the skin in the lower abdomen as the feeding vessels to the tissue of the new breast. A bikini line incision is made, removing necessary skin, fat, and tiny supplying blood vessels without violating any underlying abdominal muscle tissue. The blood vessels used lie above the level of the abdominal muscles so that the muscle layer is not encountered at all. This procedure is not possible if the SIEA blood vessels are too small.