Breast Augmentation Surgery - Medical Malpractice Lawyer

Our cosmetic surgery medical malpractice lawyers deal with claims for financial compensation arising out of negligent behaviour before during or after breast augmentation surgery If you believe that your treatment, including disclosure of risk, surgical procedure or subsequent after-care was less than adequate and amounted to negligent action on the part of a healthcare professional, please use the contact form or email our offices and a specialist medical malpractice lawyer will call you on the telephone, at your convenience, to discuss your potential damages claim for negligent breast augmentation surgery. Our breast augmentation medical malpractice lawyers specialise in cases involving negligent cosmetic surgery and they offer a free consultation with no further obligation. You will receive detailed legal advice over the telephone and our medical malpractice lawyers will give their views on liability and the estimated value of your potential breast augmentation negligence claim there and then.

Procedures

Breast augmentation is a procedure where breast prostheses or breast implants are used to increase the size of the breasts. It can be done if a woman has small breasts and would like larger ones (cosmetic surgery) or has breast cancer and needs to replace a removed breast (reconstructive surgery). It can also be done for male to female gender reassignment surgery. There are three types of breast implants used in breast augmentation including saline implants, silicone implants and implants made from other compositions. These include soy oil and polypropylene string implants.

Implants

Implants have been tried and used since 1895. The first implant made use of autologous fat transfer which was harvested from a benign lipoma. Other types of implants have been used, most of which were disastrous in outcome including paraffin implants, ground rubber, ox cartilage, glass balls and ivory. Silicone implants were invented in the 1950s and changed the face of breast augmentation. Silicone injections were tried by some doctors but this resulted in silicone granulomas and very hard breasts. Softer breasts were introduced when the silicone was transferred into biocompatible membranes and placed surgically within the body. Currently only silicone or saline implants are used for breast augmentation because these have the best results and the least risk of complications.

Saline

Saline implants were first invented in 1964. Doctors could make smaller incisions with saline implants and then fill the implant to the correct size while the pocket is inside the woman. The shells are made from a silicone elastomer and are strong enough to keep saline inside the shell with a port discreetly placed in order to inject the saline after the pocket is inserted. Saline implants, however, run the risk of deflation should the shell erode or rupture. Saline implants also have problems with rippling, being obviously implants and wrinkling of the shell. Silicone is better for women who have little breast tissue left to overlie the implant, such as women with a mastectomy due to breast cancer.

Silicone

The first silicone implant was invented in 1961 and the first implant in humans was performed in 1962. The shells and implants have undergone many changes over the years, improving over time in the look and feel of silicone implants. Silicone implants were banned during part of the 1990s due to leakage of silicone into the tissues causing allergies and silicone granulomas or scarring. Since then, improvements have been made that have allowed them back on the market.

Complications

Complications of breast augmentation include suicidality. Women who have had breast augmentations often have some degree of body dysmorphia and are unhappy with their bodies even after having implants. They are three times more likely to commit suicide as women who have not have had implants. The implants may not give you the appearance you are looking for and you may be unhappy with implants you can’t change without having another surgery. In saline implants, some of the saline can be removed or added but the idea is to get the saline implants right in the first place. You can also have allergies to anesthetic or other anesthetic complications. You can get a hematoma or seroma (a collection of fluid around the surgical area), breakdown of the surgical site, breast pain, change in sensation of the breasts, visible wrinkling, asymmetry, breast tissue thinning, impaired breast feeding and a disruption of the natural plane between the breasts so the breasts are too close together or too far apart. Infection can be a possibility and the implants can always leak, causing further asymmetry and allergies if the implant that leaks is silicone.

Breast Augmentation - Medical Malpractice Lawyers

If you are unhappy with the outcome of any cosmetic surgery you should initially discuss your reservations with the surgeon who carried out the work to see if he has any proposals to rectify the problem. The surgeon may be willing to make a refund or may provide further corrective surgery. If you are unable to resolve the matter directly with the surgeon you should take advice from a medical malpractice lawyer with a view to claiming compensation. Our breast augmentation medical malpractice lawyers offer advice at no cost on liability and an estimate of the amount of compensation that you are likely to be awarded, with no charge and without obligation.

The author of the substantive medical writing on this website is Dr. Christine Traxler MD whose biography can be read here