New Breast Implant Product

I attended an educational seminar in Las Vegas recently regarding the use of acellular dermal matrix (ADM) in implant revision breast surgery. Sounds complicated, but bear with me. This is exciting and revolutionary stuff!

In some women, scar tissue develops around their breast implants following breast augmentation. This is called a capsular contracture. It can make the breast feel firm, distort its shape, or sometimes even be painful. Frequently, it leads to the need for breast implant revision surgery. Worse than that, in some patients, it recurs even after it is removed.

Scientists and surgeons have tried for years to determine what causes capsular contracture, and they still aren’t sure. Regardless, these new ADM products appear to be able to prevent capsular contracture from forming. This product is going to be of tremendous benefit to patients that have suffered with recurrent scar tissue around their implants.

The ADM I use is a product called Strattice, and it is made from pig skin that has been treated so that there are no pig cells remaining in it. There is no such thing as an allergy to it, and infection is extremely rare. It comes as a pliable sheet that feels like soft leather. It is stitched into place to the tissues surrounding the implant at the time of the revision surgery, after the scar tissue has been moved or removed. The patient’s own blood vessels grow into this product so that in a few months, the ADM has its own blood supply.

The patient can’t feel the Strattice sheet, and it is permanent. It is believed to prevent scar tissue formation because it prevents the inflammatory process and promotes the regenerative process of wound healing.

Strattice has multiple uses. For women who are facing revision surgery because their breast implants have malpositioned below the fold underneath the breast or out to the side, or because their implants touch in the center of the chest, this product acts as an excellent tissue buttress to hold the implant in position. When the patient’s own tissues alone are used to try and hold the implant in place in a revision case, malposition recurs in 40 percent of patients. When Strattice is used, malposition recurs extremely rarely. For patients with very thin breast tissue, implant rippling can become visible. Strattice disguises this problem as well.

You can probably tell I am very excited about this new powerful tool that is designed to reinforce weak tissue and support the regeneration of one’s own tissue cells to provide additional tissue strength in implant revision breast surgery. The parent company for this product is Lifecell. They have developed a wonderful educational website for patients at renewingyou.com. If you are facing implant revision cosmetic breast surgery, I would be very happy to discuss this product with you. I have used it in several patients now and have obtained excellent results.

Categorized in: Breast Augmentation