Symmastia Repair Improves Breast Implant Position in Raleigh, North Carolina*

This 28 year old woman had a prior breast augmentation by another plastic surgeon about 3 years ago. She had a subglandular ( over the muscle) Allergan Style 15 -371 cc implant. She developed symmastia which occurs when the implant pocket is over dissected and the space between the breast in the cleavage area is too narrow. In its worse situation the breasts blend together in the middle and it is nicknamed a "UniBoob". Her surgeon tried to correct this problem by replacing the implants under the muscle. While this did help things, she still was unhappy and had developed some "bottoming out" on the right side as well as breast implants which appeared too close together. Dr. Lyle performed fold and implant corrective surgery with a technique called capsulorrhaphy. During this procedure the pocket is adjusted with sutures to narrow the space between the breasts and raise the fold below the breast. Because the tissue inside the pocket is not very strong- a mesh or other type of material is used to facilitate and reinforce the repair. Dr. Lyle used Galaflex which is an absorbable material which is strong- grows into your own tissue but is replaced by your own tissue after a year or so. This is a very useful material for corrective revisional surgery. The patient had significant improvement in position of her implants. This surgery is very difficult because tissues like muscle and capsule are very resistant to staying in place after repair. Special bras are necessary postop