Breast augmentation and reconstruction are some of the most common plastic surgery procedures performed in the US every year. However, since these operations include a saline or silicone implant in living human tissue, there are degrees of unanticipated changes that can occur with an individual’s skin type. Pregnancy and weight loss and gain tend to affect the skin, making it less strong and more subject to the forces placed on it. Thus, implants can descend or move toward the side more than intended or ideal.
Thus, revision breast surgery cases often require the correction of this phenomenon, often termed “malposition.” Typically, a surgeon will re-enter the breast “pocket,” or space where the implant was placed and tighten the capsule internally, creating an “internal bra.” This allows the surgeon to re-position the implant in a higher or more medial or lateral position depending upon the problem. However, the surgeon is dependent upon the tissue strength of each patient. This, again, can be variable.
Allergan, the makers of Natrelle breast implants, Botox, and Juvederm, have recently released a new SERI product called a knitted, silk-based, resorbable scaffold is designed to be used to help reinforce these “internal bra” type surgeries. Formally known as a capsulorrhaphy, these procedures are usually successful, but SERI seems to help strengthen the repair and prevent the tissues’ secondary relaxation.
Patients who have been pregnant and breastfed or lost considerable weight often present to their plastic surgeon with empty and somewhat relaxed skin. Frequently, this skin will stretch too much and leave the implant lower on the breast. Using SERI to help internally support the implant can help to prevent this from ever happening. The SERI and muscle can hold the implant in place, leaving little to no pressure on the skin. This allows the skin to be passive and free of the saline or silicone breast implant’s weight or downward force.
Allergan has chosen Dr. Marin to participate in the product’s early clinical trials to begin treating San Diego patients or patients from out of state who suffer from malposition and need revisionary breast surgery.
To find out if you are a candidate for revision breast augmentation surgery and the placement of the SERI Surgical Scaffold, contact our San Diego office today for a complimentary in-office consultation.
*The content in this blog is developed to spread the awareness towards plastic surgery. Our blog is not intended to serve as a replacement for an actual in-office consultation with Dr. Marin. As such, the information within this blog reflects the unique cases of our individual patients.
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