For a 13 cm Diameter Implant How Large of a Pocket Should Be Made?

Taking into account that healing and capsule formation will cause a bit of scar tightening, leaving a bit of an "extra" space makes sense, and also allows your breasts to "move" naturally when you recline and stand. This allows softness and avoids (or decreases the chances of) hard, unnatural "Baywatch coconuts." Implant displacement exercises (often imprecisely called "massage") also help maintain a pocket that is a bit larger than the implant, allowing maximum softness and natural movement and "feel."

But this is something that is truly a surgical detail you shouldn't need to be worried about. After all, you can't be telling your surgeon how to do the dissection while you're asleep, and if you are concerned s/he may not be doing the pocket dissection properly, then you should be seeking another surgeon!

Still, this is a reasonable question, and your chosen surgeon should be able to answer this and a multitude of other details that reassure you his/her technical capability and precision is not something you need to be worrying about! For more information, click on the web reference link below. Best wishes! Dr. Tholen

     Assuming a 13 cm diameter implant is a good fit for your chest wall and your breast imprint, a 13 cm pocket should suffice for a 13 cm implant.  Kenneth Hughes, MD Los Angeles, CA

If your implant is 13 cms wide, then a pocket shoudl be developed that is slightly larger than the implant.

The minimum diameter of the pocket for a breast implant should be very slightly larger then the diameter of the breast implant. If it is an anatomic breast implant even more so to avoid its rotation. For smooth round implants it should be slightly larger the the implant to avoid a capsular contracture. Many measurements of your breast should be taken prior to surgery to ensure the right implant is used.

Good luck

The pocket size needs to be at least 13cm wide. There is more to be considered however. You want the implant centered behind the nipple, so you want the pocket to be 6.5cm to the outside of the nipple, and 6.5 cm to the inside of the nipple. The pocket can be wider toward the inside, allowing a bra to push the implants in, but you must maintain adequate distance from the mid-line to avoid symmastia. Also, you do not want the pocket too wide on thr outside, or implants will fall off to the side when you are supine. 

Additionally, you do not want the implant to extend beyond your natural breast tissue.

I will usually design the breast pocket to be about 1 cm larger in diameter than the base diameter of the implant.  This allows some room in the pocket to enhance implant mobility assisted by postop massaging to try to maintain a soft result.  It is also important to consider the breast base diameter of your natural breast.  I usually try to stay within the patients measurements and choose an implant that is about 1 cm smaller in its base diameter to fit anatomically beneath the patient's breast.  Using different profile implants allow me to achieve the volume required and respect the breast measurements.  I hope this information is helpful.

I actually look at pocket size in a different way- I first measure the patient's breast base diameter, and then I know that the implant we eventually choose will have to have a diameter no larger and usually a bit smaller than that. I would not try to place a 13cm base implant in a smaller pocket because it would likely fold and ripple. Fortunately, breast implants now come in a variety of volumes and profiles- so we can be very precise in our selection and give our patients a custom fit.