Breast augmentation methods
Everyone dislikes scars. Many patients expect small incision but large implants for breast augmentation.
But logically, you would need a large incision spot to insert large implant. We need to have an incision spot of 4cm to insert most widely used implant size of 280~290cc.
If you are to use low to mid 300cc implant, the incision spot needs to be about 4.5~5.5cm long.
There was a patient who really could not stand any scar on her body. As her request, I made an incision about 3.5cm long to insert 300cc implant on the axillary fold.
I completed the operation but the scar was large enough to be noticed so I doubted if small incision was really beneficial or not.
If the incision is small, it gets in the way of the equipment used during the operation. Therefore, the equipment will keep on touching the skin leading to more traumas on the skin.
When we design the axillary fold incision, we tend to start at the deepest spot in the armpit. When we look at that area again after the recovery, the skin in that particular area is different from the other parts and therefore, more visible to the eyes.
The better solution would be to make the incision larger so that the equipments used such as endoscope, retractor, gauze can move about without hurting the incision spot. Also this large incision line would look more naturally like the original axillary fold therefore it would be less visible to the eyes.
This is what operation is all about. You do not need to make it big with necessary changes, but also you do not need to put much effort in minimizing the incision to make the patient feel more comfortable which could lead to worse outcome that you did not prepare for....
Let’s say that you built a building. You might think that the construction building is not too big so you don’t need to use a large safety shade and minimize the number of danger signs used. The construction could take a shorter time than average projects. But this is a dangerous thought. There are safety issues also with small construction projects.
No matter how minor the operation is, we need to carefully check on all the safety measures and equip all the safety related equipments before conducting the surgery. We should not try to minimize anything, including the incision length.
There is a pre-axillary line on your body. We start from behind the pre-axillary line and move to a deep spot found when you lift up your arm. You can find a spot where there are wrinkles and straight line. This is the incision spot.
Today, we shared on the spot and length of the incision area.
Thank you for reading.
