Breast augmentation
Breast augmentation and augmentation mammoplasty is a cosmetic surgery technique using breast-implants and fat-graft mammoplasty techniques to increase the size, change the shape, and alter the texture of the breasts. Augmentation mammoplasty is applied to correct congenital defects of the breasts and the chest wall. As an elective cosmetic surgery, primary augmentation changes the aesthetics – of size, shape, and texture – of healthy breasts.
| Breast augmentation | |
|---|---|
The pre-operative aspects (left), and the post-operative aspects (right) of a bilateral, sub-muscular emplacement of 350 cc saline implants through an infra-mammary fold (IMF) incision | |
| Specialty | plastic surgeon |
The surgical implantation approach creates a spherical augmentation of the breast hemisphere, using a breast implant filled with either saline solution or silicone gel; the fat-graft transfer approach augments the size and corrects contour defects of the breast hemisphere with grafts of the adipocyte fat tissue, drawn from the person's body.
In a breast reconstruction procedure, a tissue expander (a temporary breast implant device) is sometimes put in place and inflated with saline to prepare (shape and enlarge) the recipient site (implant pocket) to receive and accommodate the breast implant prosthesis.
In most instances of fat-graft breast augmentation, the increase is of modest volume, usually only one bra cup size or less, which is thought to be the physiological limit allowed by the metabolism of the human body.