Breast Revision Gallery Plastic Surgery in Austin | Patient 55

Patient Details

This patient had two previous breast procedures. She told me she always had narrow breasts. She had an augmentation through the axilla but quickly developed contracted breasts. She had another procedure that consisted of an adjustment of her implants through an incision around her areolas.

As you can see from her photos, she has several issues with her breasts. She has “double bubble” changes in her breasts, poor scars around her areolas and a “snoopy” breast condition . They are asymmetrical with lateral displacement of her nipple-areola complexes. She complained of scars under her arms from the incision that caused webbing of the area when she holds her hands up.

I performed a breast revision procedure by removing her old textured subglandular implants, replacing them with submuscular high profile silicone implants that are 325cc in size, and performing a breast lift and general reshaping through a vertical approach with the final scar shaped like a lollipop. I had to come back about six months after my procedure to remove excess skin along the bottom of the breast (placing a horizontal scar beneath the breasts).

You can see there is a HUGE improvement. I didn’t even realize how much they were improved until I actually sat down and compared her pictures (I often don’t remember what my patient had after six months or so). She is actually wanting to exchange her current implants for larger ones (425cc). I guess this is a good thing as it means she likes her breasts. I’m ok with the larger implants in her case because they will fit nicely, they won’t make her look fat and she supports her breasts very well.

Lessons to learn:

1. A lot of the breast work that I do is secondary work—these women have had previous breast surgery and their results are not necessarily what they want them to be. Even relatively “simple” procedures like a first time augmentation is fraught with the potential for poor outcomes usually because of judgment errors on the part of the surgeon and patient. Wouldn’t you rather hear the truth from your surgeon about outcomes rather than simply being “sold” on an enhancement?
2. After complicated breast procedures, “tweaking” of the results is not uncommon. I would caution patients on the pursuit of perfection—it can lead to more problems in some cases.
3. Many of my secondary breast cases have been operated on multiple times with unsuccessful outcomes. I will not take on your case unless I feel there is a very high probability of achieving success. Having said that, I can’t guarantee that we will get exactly where we want to go or that you will not experience another “failure” of sorts. Judging by my history, this is rarely the case, but this is a reality.
4. One of the things that I do during your consultation is usually provide you with much more education about your condition than you have heard before and describe how I will work to improve the outcome. Most patients had no clue what was done originally. They often do “homework” afterwards in order to understand what they are experiencing. My website can be very helpful under breast revision.
5. The cost of revision surgery is not inexpensive and needs to be taken into consideration. It costs more to fix something than to perform the original procedure.