Classification of commercially available soft tissue expanders.

Table 1: Classification of commercially available soft tissue expanders.

Standard tissue expanders	Differential tissue expanders	Anatomic tissue expanders	Custom built tissue expanders
Available in different shapes and sizes such as circular, rectangular or crescentic (croissant) with different volumes. These expanders are made commercially available by various manufacturing companies.	The stiffness or thickness of the silicon envelope is altered differentially in different areas of the expander.	Used specially in breast reconstruction. Becker expander is a variation of this type.	These expander are customised according to the length, width and volume required.