What is the Actual Cost of Alloderm Vs. Strattice?

The cost depends on the size and thickness of the piece. Alloderm is a little bit more stretchy and is used mostly for reconstruction cases where this could be an advantage. Strattice is a little bit thicker and could be a better choice for rippling, but every situation is different.

Thank you for your question.

Pricing of both products depends on the size of the piece being used.

AlloDerm is produced from donated human skin. It is handled in much the same way as other transplantable organs. The tissue is processed to remove cells that might cause your body to reject the foreign tissue or react negatively to it. What’s left is the collagen structure (fiber-like proteins) and other proteins naturally found in skin. This structure acts as a frame for your tissue to grow into and around.

AlloDerm is frequently used in conjunction with symmastia repair, capsular conjunction, pocket correction and many other revisionary breast surgeries.

Strattice is not human derived and therefore usually less expensive.

The cost of each product varies depending on the size of the dermal matrix product.  However, since Strattice is a porcine (pig derived) product, it is usually less expensive than AlloDerm.

Alloderm and strattice are among the many  dermal scaffolds available

The source of these scaffolds vary from human ,porcine,(pig )  and   Bovine(cow)

the organ used can be skin,pericardium,intestine and bladder

Essentially the cells are removed leaving a collagen framework which allows the patients tissue to grow in

There are also synthetic scaffolds that have recently been introduced.The final answer as the which material is best ,unfortunately is still not available  

You are correct in that Alloderm and Strattice can both be used to help "buffer" the tissues of the breasts in order to conceal implant rippling.  These are both dermal products, one from humans and the latter from pigs, that are used mostly in breast reconstruction but have recently been used more frequently for cosmetic breast revision cases.  In breast reconstruction, when there is no breast tissue remaining, the Alloderm is used on top of the implant to help conceal it better and hold it in position underneath the muscle.  The same can be used for cosmetic implants when the tissue overlying the implant is very thin and the implant is palpable.  If this is the reason for the rippling you are having, then placing Alloderm or Strattice over the implant and attaching this into the lower breast fold and muscle above will provide support and substance to better conceal the implant.

The costs of these materials are expensive (Alloderm much more than Strattice) but this may be the only option left for some people with bad implant rippling and palpability.  Make sure you have a well measured and correctly sized Silicone implant in currently.  If not, you may want to first switch your current implant to a submuscular position and exchange it for silicone if you have saline implants in currently.  Just a few of the many answers you should have for the plastic surgeon who you will see for the consultation.  Hope this helps- Erez Sternberg, MD

Using acellular dermal matrices as you describe can be utilized to help improve or resolve rippling. I would prefer to diagnose WHY you are having rippling before using such products as they are costly and bring risks with their use.  Many of these can react and create the apperance that you have cellulitis necessitating the liberal use of antibiotics, sometimes repeatedly.  If you have a saline implant, I would suggest going to a gel implant.  If your tissues are extremely thin, consider fat injections (but they bring their own bag of risks and potential complications)  or even gaining weight. 

If you already have gel implants, thin breast tissue, and bad rippling, and you are not whole without your implants, then you may have to consider acellular dermal matrices and I would suggest going with the ones that do not react with your tissues, causing the appearances of an infection when there really isn't one.  You should discuss this thoroughly with your doctor before proceeding.  Best wishes!

Generally speaking Strattice is less expensive than Alloderm .  Strattice is derived from porcine tissue and Alloderm is derived from human tissue.  In most cases when these products are used in reconstructive surgery for example breast reconstruction or in abdominal wall reconstruction of the products are paid for by insurance. In the case of cosmetic surgery the cost of the product is passed onto the patient.  An example of these products used in a cosmetic case would be a complicated revision breast augmentation.A rough estimate and range which would be patient dependent and procedures and facility dependent would be approximately $1800-$4000 for Strattice. Cosmetically, forAlloderm The range could be from $1800 to $8000.  Both