Hi, this is Dr. Salemy. I’m talking today from our office in Seattle. A Realself user posed a really good question about capsular contracture and how do we know if the patient has capsular contracture or not. Capsular contracture is a process where the body makes a hard scar around a breast implant. All breast augmentations involve some scar form around the implant. Most of the time, patients don’t know that they have it, they don’t feel anything and it’s not a problem. But if that scar gets firm, it can at first cause some distortion of the implant, it can hurt the patient, it can look really funny and so it’s based on a clinical exam by the surgeon.
There’s usually good things that we can do to improve capsular contracture. They typically involve removing the implant, removing that capsule, and putting in a new implant. Different implants have higher or lower risks of capsular contracture and different pockets behind the muscle or in front of the muscle, also have different rates of capsular contracture. Finally, for really severe cases, we’ll use some other type of product to help break up the scar, typically something like Seri or Stratus, something that’ll really help reduce that risk. These are all things to talk about with your doc. So if your implants are feeling firm or if they’re hurting you in any way, go ahead and set up a time and talk to your plastic surgeon about your options.
Thanks.
