Breast revision surgery is often used to change the size of previous surgical implants or to replace ruptured or leaking implants. There are some cases where breast revision surgery is performed to fix issues following a previous breast augmentation surgery. If a woman has had breast augmentation in the past and is now experiencing hardened, misshapen or misplaced breast implants this could be a result of capsular contracture, or the hardening of scar tissue around the breast implant, that may be fixed with a breast revision.
What is Capsular Contracture?
Often when women receive breast implants, the implants feel soft and mobile. But in rare cases, scar tissue forms around the breast implants and causes them to harden. This hardening may cause the implants to look misshapen, asymmetrical and otherwise unnatural. Contracture can also cause pain.
How Can Capsular Contracture Be Prevented?
There are several ways that capsular contracture can be prevented, including:
- Textured implants – For above the muscle breast augmentations, the rough surface of textured implants tends to help prevent capsular contracture from forming. However, since today most breast augmentations are placed behind the muscle, this benefit is often limited.
- Under the muscle – Today, most implants are submuscular, and this is good news when it comes to preventing capsule contracture. In fact, submuscular implants reduce your risk of capsular contracture by about 8 to 12% over your lifetime.
- Breast massage – After an original breast augmentation procedure, your plastic surgeon may recommend that you perform breast massage. These massages – which involve moving your implants within the breast – can prevent the scar tissue in your breast pocket from hardening.
Treating Capsular Contracture
There are two main ways that capsular contracture can be treated. First, is a breast revision, in which the original implants are removed, the scar tissue is broken up, and a new implant is placed. When women undergo breast revision for scar tissue, they are highly encouraged to have a submuscular placement and practice breast massage to reduce the chance that capsular contracture occurs again.
There is some evidence that an oral medication taken twice daily for 3 months may cause some patients to experience a softening of the scar tissue around their breasts. There are also ultrasound modalities available that may break up scar tissue around the breast implant.
Addressing Capsular Contracture
If you think that you have capsular contracture, Dr. Comizio can do a full breast consultation and evaluation to diagnose the condition. If you do in fact have hardening of your scar tissue, Dr. Comizio will discuss with you the treatment options and come up with a full treatment plan, including reviewing your original breast augmentation surgery records to understand the specifics of how your original implants were placed. Call the office today to schedule an appointment: 973-775-9248.
