Scraping Breast Tissue Before Augmentation Normal?

Interesting question.  I am not aware of this technique.  There are no additional maneuvers such as scraping the breast that may prevent the incidence of future breast cancer.  Statistically, one in nine women will be confronted with breast cancer.  Family history is an important contributor to one's risk of future cancer.  Other modifiable risk factors include smoking, obesity, radiation exposure, and others.  Hormone useage such as hormone replacement therapy or oral contraceptive use has some influence on breast cancer.  The above procedure that you mentioned does not sound like legitimate practice, but it may have been taken out of context. 

Hope this helps!

This is either a misunderstanding by the patient as to what she was told her surgeon did (after all, she was asleep), or her inaccurately restating what was described to her.

"Scraping" is not a surgical step in breast augmentation. If it was, it would only cause bleeding, higher risk of capsular contracture, or potentially expose more intraductal bacteria to the implant--all bad!

Furthermore, there is NO step that we surgeons can take that reduces the risk of breast cancer other than removing the breast tissue, eliminating the potential site of the cancer.

I believe your online friend was being honest, but also that this is incorrect or misconstrued.

I have never heard of this.i wonder if the doctor is doing a breast biopsy to bill the insurance for the "procedure."

There is no procedure that I'm familiar with which involves scraping of a breast to reduce cancer risk. Most likely this was a misinterpretation of what this women had done (not uncommon at all!).

I have had two patients who have previously had subcutaneous mastectomies (possibly misinterpreted as "scraping")  for fibrocystic breast disease and had implants placed.  Not performed any longer as far as I know.  It is certainly odd to be told this by any plastic surgeon.

NO! Never have heard of this "technique" in order to prevent breast cancer . Best if you can find thae surgeon who does this and speak personally to him/her. From MIAMI , please let us know if you find out something. 

 I don't know what this technique could be.  There is no surgical way to decrease the risk of breast cancer when placing implants for breast augmentation.

Hard to say what you heard on the message board, though there is no such thing as scraping breast tissue to reduce breast cancer risk in those who have breast implants. Some women have a high breast cancer risk by family and genetic history, and for those individuals mastectomy, sometimes sparing the nipple, does reduce breast cancer risk. The breast tissue is replaced with an implant.

Best of luck,

peterejohnsonmd

Thank you for your question. The importance of your specific topic is that so much of what is said on message boards and surgical forums are patients with limited information repeating what they hear as absolute truth.  This helps to muddy the waters for many prospective patients thinking what they hear in these arenas is the latest and greatest surgical procedure or cure. The Internet is filled with immense volumes of information and is a very useful tool, but there is significant portion of surgical forums where patients propagate partial truths.  Anything that sounds too good to be true or the next magic cure is likely another bottle of snake oil. 

Take your questions to your board certified surgeon and get the truth from a licensed professional.

Best of luck

Vincent Marin, MD, FACS

San Diego Plastic Surgeon

I am sure that your  interpretation of what was written on the other message board was a mistake or maybe there was a typo.  Scraping the breast tissue before placing an implant wil lnot have any impact on whether a patient develops breast cancer or not.