News for women considering breast augmentation cosmetic surgery

Breast augmentation continues to be one of the leading, if not the leading, cosmetic procedures in my office. It is a wonderful operation.

Perhaps the major drawback is the fact that one or both breasts can become hard due to encapsulation. Every patient will get a capsule in response to a foreign body. This is a normal response.

The key is to keep the breast/implant soft. There have been many theories bantered about as to why one breast will suddenly get hard 3 or more years after surgery.

Recently, one plastic surgeon who did implant exchanges submitted the capsules for microscopic analysis. They saw cotton fibriles through out the capsular tissue studied.

One plastic surgeon recently stopped using cotton products during the course of his operations and saw capsular contracture reduce from 10% to less than 0.5%.

That's impressive.

So we are looking into getting non-cotton sponges for our procedures. Who knows - it all may help.

Silicone vs. Saline and other breast questions

The trend among plastic surgeons and patients is toward the softer, more natural silicone gel implants.

50% of implants NOW sold are silicone gel.

The number of gel implants used before the ban was single digits, ie. less than10%.

There is no question they give a softer, more natural look for the most part. This is especially true for women with minimal to no breast tissue.

Breast hardness after augmentation

Every patient who undergoes breast augmentation develops a capsule. The key is to keep the capsule soft and natural.

Why do some breasts get hard?

There are probably many factors, one of which is bacterial contamination in the pocket receiving the implant. A company named TxRxPharma Inc. is developing an anti-biotic sleeve to place around the implant just prior to placement. The anti-biotics in this wrap are tetracycline and rifamycin. In preliminary studies, the capsule formed by the implants wrapped in this special sheet were much softer and more natural.

Perhaps the holy grail for breast augmentation is just around the corner. More to come.

For more information about breast implants, make a visit to my website, Beauty-by-Brueck.com and navigate to any of the pages about breast enhancement.

Thank you