Breast feeding|Breast implants

Breast feeding and a gradual build-up to a full range of activities, such as aerobics, jogging, and swimming, may take place over a 6 week period.  The rule of thumb is: if it hurts, do not do it!.

Breast surgery and women who lift weights should avoid pectoral

curls or other exercises using the pectoral muscles, as this may tear the scar tissue which forms around the pocket after the incision heals. 

Vigorous stress on these muscles may cause the muscles to teat, resulting in capsular contractures.

A car may be driven the day following surgery, although a standard shift is often uncomfortable to use.  There is no restriction on flying.

Is breast-feeding still possible?

Breast surgery and both submuscular and subglandular breast implants are behind the breast tissue, which means they are out of the way of the breast’s most important function, that of nurturing a baby. 

The breast responds to pregnancy induced hormones and enlarges and produces milk.  With the increased volume and stretching of the breast during pregnancy, some loss of breast posture may occur, just as it does in the breast which is not augmented.

Some individuals mistakenly associate the above complications as signs of human adjuvant disease (HAD).  This is not the case.  These are localized problems related to the surgery and unrelated to the immune system.

What happens to the breasts 20 years after surgery?

The implant is medically inert and remains intact far longer than human tissue.  The breasts continue to age, with a gradual loss of tone.  The scar tissue around the implant, in fact, may actually act as an internal bra, providing some support to the breast. 

What can be done about hard and unattractive implants?

Breast surgery and three alternatives may be chosen to solve this problem when a subglandular technique has been used.  One is a closed capsulotomy, which is nonsurgical. 

The breast is compressed from the outside to fracture the scar tissue of the breast capsule.  This leaves a softer breast.  This solution, however,, tends to be temporary because the scar tissue usually redevelops.  In some patients, however, the softer breast is maintained.

Another alternative is called open capsulotomy.  Here the implant is removed through the incision of the original surgery. 

The scar tissue that has enclosed or encapsulated the implant is opened and partially removed.  The implant is then reinserted.  With subglandular breast augmentation, the incidence of scar tissue recurrence following this procedure is 30 to 40%.

The third alternative is the submuscular implant.  The subglandular implant is removed and the original pocket closed. 

A submuscular pocket is then created, and a larger implant inserted.  Although this is the most costly alternative, it is often the best.

Two other, less satisfactory alternatives would be accept the deformity and leave the breast untreated or to simply remove the implant (easily done under local anesthetic).  Although the stretched skin tends to tighten up over a 6 week period, the breast sags more than it did proper to augmentation.

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