how much breast augmentation

hi, i'm dr. frank lista here at the plasticsurgery clinic and we've just finished a day of surgery. actually it's our first day ofsurgery in january in the new year, so happy new year to everyone. and one of our patientsasked a question. the question was: why do you use drains after breast augmentation whenother surgeons don't? first of all, what's a drain? a drain is a little tiny tube likethis, see it's really small, it's only a couple millimetres wide, it's made out of silicone.and at the end of surgery, while you're still asleep, the drain is inserted around the implant.it comes out through a little tiny opening just beside your incision, one on each side.it's invisible, it doesn't bother you, it doesn't hurt, you can't feel it. one end ofthe drain is attached to this little bulb,

which is attached to the tube, and any bloodor fluid that collects around the implant comes out through this- through the drainagetube, into the collection bulb, which collects any blood or fluid that collect. now, whydo we use drains? well, it's all about a complication called capsular contracture. capsular contractureis a complication of breast augmentation where the body forms scar tissue around the implantand makes the breasts feel hard. it's not the implant going hard, and it's not the breastgoing hard, it's the scar tissue around the implant that makes breasts feel hard. nowcapsular contracture is a big problem in breast augmentation surgery and studies over theyears have suggested that that incidence can be anywhere between 10% and 40% and it's reallyinconvenient because it feels terrible, it

makes your breasts look not very good. oneof the things that we know causes capsular contracture is hematoma, or blood or fluidcollecting around the implant. and when that blood or fluid collects around the implant,it can cause capsular contracture. so the idea of the drain is to drain that blood orfluid so that it doesn't collect and so it decreases the risk of capsular contracture.the drains come out the next day, we see all of our patients the next day. the drains areremoved, it doesn't hurt, it's not a big deal, it doesn't leave a mark, and our capsularcontracture rate is really low. how low? well, first of all, there's a study in the journalof- canadian journal of plastic surgery which has also suggested that drains reduce therisk of capsular contracture. we've just finished

reviewing 1300 of our patients who all hadbreast augmentations with drains, and our rate of capsular contracture is 1.3% whichis the lowest published rate of capsular contracture in any study ever published. so clearly drainshelp reduce the risk of capsular contracture. so why don't all surgeons use it? well firstof all, it's expensive. the cost of the drain, the extra time to put the drain in, and thenursing cost to see the patient the next day and take the drain out probably costs severalhundred dollars. the other reason why some surgeons don't use it is because if you havea drain, you have to see the patient the next day to take the drain out, and that's inconvenient.so cost and inconvenience. but here at the plastic surgery clinic, that is never a concern.cost or inconvenience don't matter if what

we're doing is better for the patient. andclearly, using drains reduces the risk of capsular contracture, is better for the patient.we don't care what the cost is, we don't care how inconvenient it is for us. what mattersis what's best for you. so it's not a big deal, it's easy to use, it doesn't hurt, youdon't feel it, we take it out the next day, it's no big deal. but it can lower your riskof capsular contracture and in our study, 1.3%, pretty darn low. so it's a great thingto do and that's why we use it. so thanks for visiting, follow us on twitter or youtube,facebook or on our website where we post commonly asked questions. i'm dr. frank lista fromthe plastic surgery clinic. thanks for visiting.