What if you want breast reconstruction but don’t want a synthetic substance in your body? There are many advantages to using your body’s own tissue to reconstruct the breast. Your own skin and fat can look and feel more natural than an implant. And if you use tissue from your abdomen to build the new breast, you get the additional…
Do you wake up with pain and numbness in your thumb, index or long fingers? Does your hand fall asleep while you’re driving? Are you losing your grip? You may have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. In Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or CTS, the soft tissue in the wrist swell and compresses the Median Nerve, causing pain, numbness and, eventually, permanent nerve damage.…
On June 13 the Supreme Court denied the intellectual property rights claims by Myriad Genetics on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes used to evaluate a woman’s risk of breast and ovarian cancers. Hooray! It’s always seemed wrong that anyone could own any part of the human genome. Myriad Genetics built a $450-million-a-year business on these two gene markers. Women with…
The most common way to reconstruct a breast is with an implant. There are good reasons for the popularity of this method: It is the easiest to go through. It involves the shortest time in surgery. It does not involve other body parts. And in the right patient can give great results. But implant reconstruction can be complicated. To begin…
Timing is the first question that needs to be answered when considering breast reconstruction surgery. Should the reconstruction be started at the time of the mastectomy or after it is over? There are good reasons to choose either alternative. Immediate reconstruction, performed at the time of the original cancer surgery, can decrease overall healing time and time away from work.…
For consumers, cost is of paramount concern for any item or service. Quality, convenience and a host of other factors are obviously important, too. That said, what determines the cost of a plastic surgical procedure? First there are the fixed costs, like, for instance, the current price of breast implants. Variability in cost depends in part on volume of use,…
Breast conservation is the goal of lumpectomy surgery for breast cancer. It is a good choice for large breasted women with relatively small cancers. But in even the best cases, significant residual deformities can occur. Sometimes the problem is caused by the surgery, sometimes by the radiation usually necessary after lumpectomy. We can improve the appearance of a partial mastectomy…
Which Facelift is right for you? It depends on what needs to be corrected. If your jaw line has lost definition, you have minor jowling, and minor excess neck skin, a mini facelift is probably what you need. However, if you have a “turkey” neck with neck bands and a straight line of skin from your chin to your chest…
Yes, breast reduction is a covered service by health insurance if certain criteria are met. What those criteria are depends on the insurance and the state. All companies require that the large breasts cause significant symptoms and that a particular amount of breast tissue be removed. Excessively large breasts can cause pain in the upper and lower back, neck and…
A plastic surgeon? Yes. A magician? No. When there is a cut through the skin, the skin needs to heal. To heal, it needs to lay down new collagen, which is never as organized as the collagen you are born with. Disorganized, heaped up collagen is the definition of a scar. So what do plastic surgeons do to avoid scars?…
