41 y.o. 600cc R, 650ccL Breast Revision from Post Explantation from Lumpectomy Seroma

Before coming to Dr. Zweifler I and been through a year of Hell! I was in a car accident ( Nov 2014) which created a Seroma behind my existing implant, which i was unaware. After 4 months I found a suspicious lump on the right side of my sub glandular breast implant. The lump turned out to be benign after needle biopsy, but was suggested by the radiaologist to be removed by a breast surgeon. I wasn’t sure how to proceed and I wish I went to a plastic surgeon FIRST to inspect the state of the implant and possible relationship the car accident had to this lump and pain I was experiencing. However, my mother was a breast cancer survivor and they didn’t want to take any chances so instead I had the lumpectomy.

After 3 weeks I felt pressure where they excised the lump and the incision opened up exploding with yellow serous fluid. I was treat w/ antibiotics which did nothing. Then I felt pressure from below my implant and the incision from years ago opened up. I went 5 weeks with open wounds and finally went to my prior plastic surgeon, Dr. Romanelli of Long Island, who insisted the implants had to come out. He then proceeded to spend less than 20minutes in the OR the day of that surgery and bill my insurance company over $60,000 for work he did not perform! He left the capsules which were highly calcified and ended up destroying my life for the next year.

For the next 3-4 months I was seeing a wound care specialist for the seroma and the tunnel wound that had formed which involved 2x-3x a week packing the site twice a day. When this began to heal I was finally able to begin investigating surgeons. I went to every top reviewed surgeon in NYC. The office of Dr. Coleman and Tribeca Plastic Surgery, Dr. Karp at NYU, Drs Breitbart, Dr. Kathulia and Dr. Decorrato and close to two dozen others. If they had an average 4-5 star review or had been rated as one of NYC's top doctors I saw them. I even considered flying out to the west coast and seeing Dr. Pousti!

Dr. Zweifler was the only one to consider my case in full. my desires, all of the complexities including multiple seroma, capsulotomies, asymmetry, scar tissue, and being a female bodybuilder wanting implants sub glandular. I also wanted my plastic surgeon to go to bat for me with my insurance company due to the fact that this was more reconstruction as a result of trauma. She even did some fat transfer to help with the puckering caused from the lump removal and trauma from that incision opening up and being packed. She researched new materials, procedures and also stayed with me the whole way providing all necessary and appropriate after care for my case. Simply put, Dr. Z was the only one with the balls necessary to handle my case!

I had 600cc R, 650cc Hi Profile Mentor Smooth Round implants prior to explanation and decided to go with Mentor textured, round, 600R, 650L , Moderate + profile , sub-glandular with Alloderm to help prevent capsular contracture and additional fat transfer to help w/ pucking of the nipples and the scar on the R side of breast from Lump Removal.

My biggest fear was reoccurrence of capsular contracture being over the muscle and so many surgeries and of course SEROMA. I knew there was some risks with Alloderm but was willing to take the chance. I had to have drains in for 2 week and was still draining 50-60 cc but we decided to take them out on the 13th day. I wore compression and started taking Singular ( studied in reduction in capsule contracture) and was told to stay out of the gym for 6 weeks.

Dr Z was seeing me 2-3 x/ week post op to make sure there was no Seroma recurrence and that everything was healing properly and I had no issues. She treated me like a China Doll which is exactly what I needed after all that I had been through in 2015.

The surgical facility was much better than I expected. I had done all my other plastic surgeries in the office and was nervous about having to be in a hospital. I soon learned that this facility is highly regarded by many plastic surgeons in the area and that encompasses some pretty high end zip codes. The staff was excellent and they took wonderful care of me. This facility specializes in plastic surgery procedures and you ultimately are safer than in an office procedure should something go wrong.

I have included a series of pictures showing how horrible I looked before an my most recent after photos.

I was allergic to the tape so I got two blisters so those are the little red marks you see above my nipples. There is a huge improvement in how the nipples looked pre and post and especially the side incision. Right now I am worried about the scar fading on the side and using Scar Ease and Silicone Gels.

This is when I had my implants prior to explant. The side was the open wound that kept draining fluid until it tunneled down to the bottom of the breast and opened the incision from 7 years ago.

It was horrible.. imagine having beautiful breasts and then having them removed and seeing how deflated and horrible my breasts looked.