The Calcutta Medical Research Institute (CMRI) claims to have introduced in the city a new surgical technique to reconstruct breasts of women who have undergone mastectomy.

According to the hospital, the technique is more effective than the other available options and was used for the first time in eastern India on May 10 on a 43-year-old woman who had her right breast removed in 2005.

“The new method is better than other available breast reconstruction techniques,” claimed plastic surgeon Anupam Golash who carried out the operation.

“We used the microvascular free tissue transfer technique. We collected skin, fat and tiny blood vessels from the patient’s lower abdomen and reconstructed the right breast to match the size and shape of the left one,” explained the surgeon.

Two other methods are generally followed to reconstruct breasts, said Golash. “Silicon or other implants may be used. In the other method — tissue flap reconstruction — skin, muscle and fat from the back or abdomen are tunnelled through to the chest to create a new breast.”

Both these processes have limitations, according to the surgeon. “The shapes and sizes of the breasts cannot be matched.” Moreover, “as muscles from the abdomen are used in tissue flap reconstruction, the patient can develop hernia”.

In microvascular free tissue transfer technique, however, these problems can be eliminated, claimed the doctor. The surgery costs between Rs 60,000 and Rs 80,000.

The CMRI plans to open a cosmetic clinic with a specialty breast division within a couple of months. “We will spend around Rs 40 lakh on this project,” said Rupak Barua, chief operating officer, CMRI.

More than 50 per cent of the patients suffering from breast cancer require mastectomy or total removal of the infected breast, said surgical oncologist Gautam Mukhopadhyay.