What Does It Take to Lower a Sub-muscular Implant Pocket? Can It Be Done in the Office?

asked 1 year ago by Gardenpath in Massachusetts
Latest answer by Steven Wallach, MD
Question viewed 392 times
Tags: silicone implant, 300-349cc, pocket, submuscular

I had sub-muscular, silicone implants approximately 1 year ago. I have 340cc implants. The right sits quite a bit higher and I'm wondering what the procedure is to lower the pocket? Can it be done in the office? Thank you for your time.

9 answers to What Does It Take to Lower a Sub-muscular Implant Pocket? Can It Be Done in the Office?

Lowering the fold

Lowering the fold on onse side for minor asymmetries( which in most cases is normal) probably should be avoided to avoid the risk of forming a double bubble. This has to be done int he operating room.

Steven Wallach, MD
Manhattan Plastic Surgeon

Adjusting a high breast fold after breast augmentation

It is difficult to answer your question without photos and examination. You may have capsular contracture, which is the tightening of the capsule around the implant. I highly recommend having the surgery done under anesthesia in an accredited surgery center. It is a painful procedure if done in the office and will increase the risk of damage to the implant.

Michael A. Jazayeri, MD
Santa Ana Plastic Surgeon

Lowering a breast implant pocket

It is quite straightforward to lower a breast implant pocket. However, I do everything in a fully accredited outpatient surgery center, and would not attempt this in an office setting. There are risks of implant damage, it would need to be removed and replaced for the pocket adjustment, bleeding, infection, etx, and all these risks would be minimized in an operating room. Plus, patient comfort is important!!

Hayley Brown MD
Henderson Plastic Surgeon

Lowering An Implant Easy

In general, it is easier to lower an implant then raise one. It all depends on what is holding the implant higher. Does the pocket simply need to be released from the inframammary area to allow the implant to sit lower? Does the entire capsule need to be released and scored for the entire pocket to change? These things are hard to say without seeing you in person. Certainly this can be done in an office under sedation if your surgeon has an operating suite... more

Christopher V. Pelletiere, MD
Barrington Plastic Surgeon

Lowering an implant after augmentation

Your question addresses two separate issues: 1. How to lower an implant 2. Appropriateness for in-office surgery How to lower an implant that is placed sub-muscularly depends on why the implant is sitting high. Is there an element of capsular contracture? Was the implant placed via a transaxillary incision and the pectoralis was not released inferiorly? Is the right breast fold anatomically higher than the left? It is definitely possible to lower an... more

David Bogue, MD
Boca Raton Plastic Surgeon

www.drbogue.com

Lowering a high implant

Lowering the implant would most likely be accomplished with a capsulotomy after excluding the possibility of capsular contracture as the cause of your elevated implant. I would prefer performing this in an operating room or operating suite.

Otto Joseph Placik, MD
Chicago Plastic Surgeon

Breast Implant Malposition

It sound like you may have either a capsular contracture or inaccurately developed pocket at the time of surgery. Regardless, the capsule needs to be released so that the pocket can be reshaped and the implant repositioned. If you mean it would be performed with local anesthesia only then this is not an office procedure. Dr. ES

Earl Stephenson Jr., MD, DDS
Atlanta Plastic Surgeon

Repositioning your implant can be performed in a well equipped office operating room.

When you ask can such a surgical revision be accomplished "in the office" the answer depends on how well equipped your surgeons office operating room is. The operation to reposition an implant requires a surgery that in many ways is equivalent to the original augmentation operation. The same equipment and the same anesthesia is necessary to successfully lower your right implant as was required to insert it originally. Many surgeons have office operating facilities designed to... more

David A. Ross, MD
Chicago Plastic Surgeon

Revisionary breast surgery should be done in the operating room

I've encountered this complication, and managed it in the operating room under sterile conditions and under anesthesia. The issue is that the supporting infra-mammary fold and perhaps also the pectoralis muscle needs to be modified. To do this under direct surgical vision may require removing the breast implant. I would be wary of a surgeon that suggests doing this revisionary breast procedure under 'a little local in the office'.