Breast Augmentation – From Love Handles
Plastic surgeon professor-researchers have found another source for creating breasts – they are using those pesky love handles found on the flanks.
Until now, women who wanted breast augmentation or breast reconstruction after cancer had the choices of:
- Saline and silicone implants
- Flaps of fat and skin from the tummy or the sides
Some surgeons, reconstructing breasts for cancer patients have also taken large flaps of skin and fat from the patient’s buttocks to use as breasts.
But that causes a scooped out, flat appearance on the haunches and, usually, the need for yet another plastic surgery to create more rounded buttocks.
During one surgery, Ariel Rad, M.D., an assistant professor of plastic surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine noticed during one operation a blood vessel that would make the surgery to transplant love handles to breasts and recovery easier.
Any time plastic surgeons transplant fat, they must place it close to an existing blood supply — or else create a new blood supply. Without blood, the transplanted fat will die. Because dead fat tends to calcify, mammograms readings are blocked and may hide evidence of returning cancer in the future.
Professor Rad and his colleagues then decided to find out if everybody had that particular blood vessel. So they studied corpses and performed CT scans on living patients and found it present in 60 percent of patients.
The next step was using the method on 12 slim, athletic women who had lost their breasts to cancer. The surgeons were also thrilled to find the critical blood vessel needed to connect the blood supply in the mammary area was twice as long as the one used in buttocks grafts.
The new surgery was performed on the dozen patients from February, 2008 to one year later. All had good cosmetic results, according to Dr. Rad
The operation is performed with a microscope to connect blood vessels and provides a bonus in addition to reconstructed breasts, including:
- An improved contour of the waist
- An improved contour of the hips
(Read more about the love handle breast augmentation procedure in ScienceBlog.com)
admin @ April 22, 2010
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