Weird and Wacky News
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In manufacturing, there is the Law of Unintended Uses.
That means people find uses for products the manufacturers completely missed. Any New Yorker knows right how valuable kitty litter is for getting a grip on icy sidewalks.
The latest law of unintended uses? Breast implants as body armor.
Back in 2006, Israel was undergoing rocket attacks. Emergency surgeons at Nahariya Hospital reported they found shrapnel from an exploded rocked imbedded in the silicone breast implants of a 24-year-old. “The fragments were just inches from her heart so the implants saved her life,” said a spokesman. (Read a blog about shrapnel-catching breast implants.)
Our take: silicone is very thick, most shrapnel fragments are jagged but flat and don’t penetrate the body very deeply. Mostly likely true.
Another instance happened in Bulgaria, also in 2006, when a woman had a head on collision with another car. A policeman reported her double D implants absorbed most of the impact, protecting the driver’s ribs and vital organs.
Our take: Probably true. (We sure wish a doctor had backed up the police report.) Read the breast implants as airbags story.
The most current implant-as-body-armor instance happened when an L.A. woman was shot point blank by a crazed gunman who attacked a dental office where his wife was working. Another victim was shot in the arm and then played dead. But the gunman allegedly aimed directly at her heart and fired. A cosmetic surgeon later reported the implants saved the woman’s life.
Our take: it probably did not happen like that. Most assault rifles fire a high velocity bullet that, at close range, would zip through any implant, through the victim and then into and through yet another person.
What probably happened: The hospital spokesman where the victim was treated reported spotting bullet fragments only millimeters from her heart in a CT scan. So she was probably hit by a ricochet bullet that had lost most of its energy. Or the bullet struck the victim’s necklace and broke up. (Read the size D Implants article.)
Nonetheless, she should consider herself very, very lucky.
Adding to her luck was a kindly Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon who offered to do for no, or low, fees a reconstructive surgery when the victim healed.
Morale? Nobody should ever get saline implants or silicone implants with the idea of acquiring an internal bulletproof vest!
March 3, 2010
Removal
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One of the latest personalities to have her breast implants removed is Australian hurdles champ, Jana Rawlinson, who decided her implants would hold her back from 2012 Olympic gold.
Jana, a former two-time world champ in the 2003 and 2007 400 meter hurdles, only had the implants for 14 months before, in her own words, “I’m back to being as flat as a pancake.”
Dancers are another group of athletes that feel large breasts only get in their way.
Other celebrities have opted to go through explant surgery, the procedure to remove or replace breast implants.
For instance, former Spice girl, Victoria Beckham, had her large implants downsized during the summer of 2009. Victoria has a tiny frame and her implants just did not compliment her body.
O.C. Real Housewife Tamara Barney found she was having back pains due to her large implants so she had them replaced with a smaller set which also proved to be a pain in the back. At one point, Tamara was thinking she would lose the implants altogether.
New York City Real Housewife Jill Zarin reduced her implants from a 32 G to a 32D.
Some women having explant surgery, the procedure to remove implants, opt to have a breast lift (or mastopexy) at the same time.
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), the average cost of implant removal in the U.S. is $2435. With 20,967 breast augmentation patients having explant surgery in 2008, about $51,044,485 was spent.
(2008 is the most recent year for which statistics have been compiled. 2009 statistics will be released in March, 2010.)
The three most common reasons for breast implant removal include:
- A change in size or shape
- Implant leak
- Capsular contracture, a type of internal scarring that hardens the implant and breast
Other famous women who had their breast implants removed or had a considerable reduction in implant size include:
- Britney Spears
- Demi Moore
- Jenny McCartney
- Courtney Love
- Jenna Jameson
- MTV’s Kacey Long
- Denise Richards
(Read our previous post about how Denise Richards first got uncomfortably large breast implants, and then received even larger implants – due to bad communication with the plastic surgeon — before going just right for her size.)
February 5, 2010
Breast Implants
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The Internet can be a wonderful source of information but only when you encounter true statements, and not viral myths.
(We call it “viral” because one website copies material from another and the information multiples as quickly as virus cells in a Petri dish.)
Here are most frequently reported top five myths about breast implants:
Myth 1: Silicone is dangerous
Silicone implants were removed from the market in 1992 when medical sleuths searched for the link between cancer and silicone. Results: nothing found so silicone became available again in 2006. But rest easy – even after 14 years of study, they are still studying the question.
Myth 2: You must change your implants every ten years.
Implants are subject to wear and tear but there is no way of predicting a failure point. The implants may last ten years, a lifetime or a year, depending on medical factors and the activity type and level of the patient.
Myth 3: You can’t have mammograms with breast implants.
Only if your silicone or saline implants are above the chest muscle will the results of your mammogram be clouded. But if the same implants are placed under the chest muscle, results will be excellent.
Regardless which position your implants occupy, tell your radiologist about your breast surgery. Many technicians like to take side and other views to insure they have fully examined the breast.
Myth 4: The TUBA (transumbilical breast augmentation) incision and approach is best.
Actually, many plastic surgeons get great results using any one of four surgical approaches to breast enhancement. Some surgeons skilled with the endoscope get good results entering through the armpit, the transaxillary approach.
The important factor is, after surgically opening the skin, the surgeons must create an excellent pocket for the implant. So while one surgeon may quickly do his work by making an incision under the breast, (the inframammary approach) another surgeon may be adept at incisions in the areola, the dark area surrounding the nipple.
Besides, whatever incision scar you have usually lightens to virtually nothing in about 18 months.
Myth 5: Women have boob jobs just to catch mens’ eyes.
Nope. Most women have breast enhancement to please themselves and to feel more feminine and attractive. While a few breast surgery procedures are obvious and over the top, the vast majority of women want only a natural look and feel.
January 14, 2010
Breast Implants
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Until now, women wanting breast augmentation have a choice of implants filled with:
· Saline
· Silicone
Now, a third generation of breast implants is coming down the pike. The new kid on the block – or maybe the next breast thing – is known as the Ideal Implant and is undergoing FDA clinical trials in California, Texas and Florida.
The new model purports to offer the best features found in the existing saline and silicone implants.
When a woman opts for a silicone implant, she must sign a statement saying she has been counseled to get an expensive MRI every three or four years.
Why?
Because if a silicone implant leaks, it may not be immediately noticeable. Compare that to saline. A leak there and the whole breast goes flat. Score one for saline implants.
But….most women and their significant others opt for silicone due to the softer, more natural feel. Score one for silicone.
However, if a woman gets saline implants above the chest muscle, the edges may show through the skin. Also, some saline implants slosh when the owner reclines. And if the implant envelope wrinkles, a rip can later develop.
So a Texas plastic surgeon and professor asked for ideas, thoughts and suggestions from both implant patients as well as board certified plastic surgeons who work with the implants and listen to patient comments – the good, the bad and the ugly — for years.
The result is a saline filled implant with an inner and outer shell separated by two more unattached, perforated shells. The idea is to better control the movement of the saline. (Read more about the new breast implant.)
The new implant is more curved to rest more naturally against the chest wall. Its inventor and other plastic 
surgeons think the new model offers the natural look of silicone gel and the safety of saline.
They can be put above or under the chest muscle.
So far, only about 100 pairs have been implanted in the U.S.
But don’t rush out and to buy one!
The F.D.A. test period is for a decade on 500 women. And because the test period is so long, each test subject expects to receive anywhere between $8,000 and $12,000 when the test is concluded after 12 follow- up visits.
The breast implant maker is springing for the payments.
December 2, 2009
Breast Implants, breast surgery
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When a woman thinks about having breast augmentation with implants, she has three choices where the implant is positioned:
- Over the chest muscle
- Under the chest muscle
- Under the thin, tough sheet of tissue, the fascia, covering the chest muscle
All three have their advantages and disadvantages so no one position is right for every patient.
The basic drawbacks to the subglandular position over the chest muscle are:
- Any rippling in the implant can be seen and felt through the skin
- Mammography is more difficult
- Capsular contracture, a painful scarring and hardening of the breast is more common
- Implants are more likely to fall down into the breast pocket, or, “bottom out”
But the procedure, also known as the submammary placement, is quicker for the surgeon to do, involves less recovery time and, most likely, less expense. If something goes wrong with the implant later, it’s easier for the surgeon to reach.
When a plastic surgeon puts an implant under the chest, or, Pectoralis muscle, he or she usually cuts the muscles in half, creates pockets, places the implants and sutures the chest muscles back. That creates more recovery time and expense because the technique is more difficult to master. (Note: muscle cutting can be avoided by entering the breasts through the armpits.)
But a larger implant may be required because the chest muscle presses down on the implant.
However, the technique also offers:
- Low risk of capsular contracture
- A softer and more natural feel
- Rarely seen bottoming out
The third option, placing implants under the fascia, also has many advantages, according to an article in the October, Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, a publication for cosmetic plastic surgeons.
Three plastic surgeons in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, reviewed the records of 1000 breast enhancement patients over 10 years who had soft gel breast implants placed under the fascia covering the chest muscle.
The surgeons entered 95 percent of the breasts through an incision in the inframammary fold, the area under the breast at the chest wall.
The surgeons/authors found:
- Less post-op pain
- A shorter operation
- Quicker return to daily activities
- Better projection (how far out in front the breast projects)
- Reduction of capsular contracture
- Less morbidity than subglandular and submuscular methods
(Read the fascia breast augmentation article.)
November 17, 2009
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