Cost of Changing Breast Implants for Full Muscle Coverage?

This problem is one I frequently see. There is no longer any way to put your implants totally behind the muscle. You will need a large sheet of Strattice(TM) on each side to be sewn from the lower border of the pectoralis major muscle to the inframammary fold, maximizing the amount of implant that is covered by the pectoralis muscle, reducing lower pole stretch, supporting the implant, and adding lower pole coverage from the thickness fo the Strattice itself. If you have droopiness, as is... more

Although this can be done, it often creates a breast that is firm and rigid and somewhat immobile. We generally reserve full muscle coverage for breast reconstruction and rarely for cosmetic augmentation. When surgeons refer to full coverage in these instances, they are generally performing fascial coverage of the implant over the lower and lateral portions of the implant. To achieve full muscle coverage, one must elevate the serratus muscle. pectoralis minor or rotate the latissimus to... more

Dear Mel, Full muscle coverage is an operation that went out of favor and is rarely done these days. The raised muscle (Serratus) caused a flattening distortion of the implant and uniformly wasted away to scar tissue. A MUCH better way to get a better result is to switch to gel implants which feel more natural, are slightly lighter (IE sag less) and RIPPLE LESS. Then, use a biological scaffold (Alloderm or Stratice) sewn as a hammock from the edge of the pectoralis major is major muscle... more

It is very difficult to reattach muscle after it has detached. A better way to give more coverage of the lower pole if you have rippling is to place a piece of allodern along the lower pole.

The lack of coverage of the lower and outer portions of the breast with implants under the pectoral muscle is related to the anatomy of the muscle. toal muscle coverage is really not a good option though, as it will distort the shape of the breast and is very rarely done for that and other reasons. Fortunately there is a good option, a material called acellular dermal graft (Strattice or Alloderm) which works very well in my experience. Info here: http://www.lifecell.com/patients/. The... more

Full muscle coverage is very seldom needed in breast augmentation. However, if this is truly the case the implants would need to be removed, the serratus anterior muscles elevated off the chest wall and advanced medially to cover the implants. These muscle are not very big so they may not provide you what you're looking for. Another solution would be to add a dermal matrix such as Alloderm or Neoform or similar. The cost would be higher but it might be a better solution. Overall the... more

It would be virtually impossible at this point to get full muscle coverage of you implants. It is even very diffcult at the first go around. Your options would be 1. Switch to silicone gel implant, less rippling(but still may have some 2. Use Alloderm or similar product to add bulk to that area. This will be very expensive 3. Use fat grafting to the area. Somewhat controversial and will require multiple sessions 4. Try overfilling the implants-fairly simple, but will theoretically void the... more

The idea of full coverage of the implant with muscle sounds good but it is impossible . We do this for the breast reconstruction but we use expanders and also Alloderm. Your muscle has retracted and will not stretch to cover the implant fully . You may benefit from changing your implant to silicone and also pocket revision. For the pocket revision the old pocket is folded on itself to provide more layers. The other option is fat grafting to the breast . This a controversial and not... more