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Randomized Feasibility Trial for Mesh in Pre-Pectoral Reconstruction

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) logo

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Status

Enrolling

Conditions

Breast Cancer
Breast Implant; Complications, Infection or Inflammation

Treatments

Procedure: Reconstruction without ADM
Device: Acellular Dermal Matrix

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

Details and patient eligibility

About

Surgical mesh products, particularly acellular dermal matrices (ADM), are now used by the majority of plastic surgeons to assist with the nearly 100,000 prosthetic breast reconstruction procedures in the United States, despite never being approved by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for this indication. As surgeons transition to placing breast implants above the chest muscle (pre-pectoral), there has been an increasing reliance on these often expensive mesh products without robust evidence to understand their risks and benefits. Our pilot study is a randomized multi-center trial to evaluate surgical mesh assistance in pre-pectoral tissue expander to breast implant reconstruction to address vital questions for women's public health.

Full description

One in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime, causing both physical and psychological trauma due to invasive treatments and the distress associated with removal of a breast. Breast reconstruction after mastectomy has become a critical procedure for many women to restore psychological wellbeing, with implant-based reconstruction the most common approach. Nearly 100,000 patients undergo reconstruction with implants every year in the United States.

Surgical mesh devices, particularly acellular dermal matrices, are now used off-label by most reconstructive surgeons performing prosthetic breast reconstruction. In the past decade, surgeons have advocated a transition from submuscular reconstruction (placement of the implant under the pectoralis muscle) to pre-pectoral (placement above the pectoralis) and often consider mesh to be necessary for this procedure. Surgical mesh has not been approved by the FDA for breast reconstruction for either anatomic location. These mesh devices are considered Class III medical devices and FDA recently prioritized the evaluation of these products during a panel meeting in 2019.

No Level I randomized trial has been successfully performed to determine the actual risks and benefits of mesh devices in breast reconstruction. This study proposes a pilot study as the first ever randomized, multi-center trial for mesh assistance in two-stage prosthetic pre-pectoral breast reconstruction, across the major manufacturers. The goals are to demonstrate feasibility of such a study and to generate high level data toward the evaluation of safety and effectiveness of these products for the benefit of women's public health

Enrollment

120 estimated patients

Sex

Female

Ages

22 to 75 years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

  • Female patients age 22 to 75 undergoing unilateral or bilateral immediate pre-pectoral reconstruction with tissue expanders
  • Prophylactic and oncologic mastectomies are both acceptable
  • Nipple sparing and skin sparing mastectomy techniques are both acceptable

Exclusion criteria

  • Intraoperative assessment demonstrates unfavorable conditions (ie poor mastectomy skin flap thickness or viability) for immediate pre-pectoral reconstruction in any breast
  • Bilateral reconstruction patients undergoing contralateral submuscular reconstruction
  • Direct-to-implant reconstruction
  • Pregnancy
  • Delayed reconstruction

Trial design

Primary purpose

Treatment

Allocation

Randomized

Interventional model

Parallel Assignment

Masking

Double Blind

120 participants in 2 patient groups

Acellular Dermal Matrix
Experimental group
Description:
Patients will receive ADM during their initial tissue expander placement.
Treatment:
Device: Acellular Dermal Matrix
Control
Active Comparator group
Description:
Patients will not receive ADM during their initial tissue expander placement.
Treatment:
Procedure: Reconstruction without ADM

Trial contacts and locations

1

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Central trial contact

Jaco Festekjian, MD; Michael Delong, MD

Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov

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