PALM BEACH COUNTY, FL--In 2008 approximately 180,000 women in the United States were diagnosed with breast cancer and most of those women had some form of surgery – either lumpectomy to remove the cancerous portion of the breast or mastectomy to remove the entire breast. Many of those women had breast reconstruction where breast implants and/or tissue from other parts of the body were used to create a new breast.
In 2006 Maxime Best was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a mastectomy. She opted to have reconstruction at the time of her surgery, but, unfortunately, shortly after her surgery her breast started to develop an indentation.
“It was fine at the beginning but then it just started to ripple,” Best said.
After an unsuccessful attempt by another doctor to correct the problem, Maxime went to plastic and reconstructive surgeon, Dr. Gregory Albert.
“Our patient had a previous reconstruction. She had saline implants and expanders. She had rippling of the breast implant. In hopes of trying to fix that she went to a silicone implant and had a dermal flap placed and that didn’t work either. So she came and we camouflaged the implant further with some fat injections over the implant,” Dr. Albert said.
A new study presented at the 2008 conference of American Society of Plastic Surgeons indicates that removing fat from the abdomen or upper thighs and injecting it after breast reconstruction to correct wrinkling is safe and can improve breast shape.
“If there is fat from the patient you can use fat to inject into scar tissue or otherwise voids in the breast to fill them up. For example, fat injections are really good in patients who have had just a lumpectomy and just need a little more volume,” Dr. Albert said.
Researchers indicated that using fat for cosmetic breast enhancement still needs more study, but for women who had to have part of their breast removed as part of their cancer treatment, fat injections were safe and effective.
“I’m very happy with it. I feel like a new woman,” Maxime said.
