A breast augmentation may seem like a pretty straightforward procedure and it often is. But a breast augmentation and lift can be a little trickier…especially if it’s a redo procedure! For example, a patient may have had a breast augmentation when she was young. But with kids and age, the breasts start to droop. Scar tissue begins to thicken. The breast becomes distorted. Now you have capsular contracture.
Capsular Contracture during a breast augmentation and lift?
So with a combination of scar tissue, droop and excess skin, a breast augmentation and lift is necessary to accomplish several goals. Exchange the old implants with newer 5th generation silicone implants. Remove excess skin and perform a lift. Remove scar tissue that has formed around the implant. It’s a lot of work but the results are worth it.
If you check out the pieces of tissue below, that’s scar tissue that was part of the capsule that formed around the implant. Because the scar is thick, and distorted the shape of the breast, this is an example of capsular contracture. It may not seem very scientific but you “simply” cut out the scar tissue in little pieces so that when the new implant goes in, it’s surrounded by fresh breast tissue, not scar.
Avoiding Capsular Contracture in the future
While it’s true that more scar tissue will form around the new implant, there are a few things you can do to reduce your risk. Remember though, you can’t reduce scar tissue formation altogether. But you can reduce the occurrence of the thickened, distorting kind of scar tissue that results in capsular contracture. First, the new silicone implants with textured surfaces can reduce the risk. Placing the implant under the muscle rather than on top of the muscle will also reduce the risk of capsular contracture. All of these changes in technique from the previous procedure were performed in this case and hopefully, with time, the patient’s risk of capsular contracture will indeed decrease.
But in the meantime, you can see the shape of her left breast, in particular, is greatly improved!
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