Posts Tagged breast hardening

Reader Question: Accolate Cures Implanted Breast Hardening?

Posted by admin in breast implant pre-op tutorial on January 4, 2011

Reader Question:

I just had a breast augmentation a week ago. The saline implants were placed under my muscle. My doctor keeps pushing Accolate on me even though I tell him I don’t like the way it makes me feel and I don’t like about the potential dangers of the drug. What do you recommend to your patients? I massage regularly and am starting to take vitamin E. Is there anything else I can do because I do not want to take this potentially harmful drug.

Breast hardening after the placement of implants is referred to as capsular contracture. It can be more of a problem with patients who smoke cigarettes, have had radiation treatment, have bled or had implant infection after surgery, and/or have had silicone implant placement. The use of moderate sized saline implants under the muscle is not commonly associated with severe contracture, but there are patients who have had repeated problems with it.

Accolate is an asthma medication in the class called leukotriene inhibitor. There have been a few studies showing some decrease in contracture in high risk groups on the medication. There is a small risk of liver problems. Some doctors are using it as prophylaxis in patients at high risk for developing contracture.

Unless you are in such a high risk group, I would likely not put you on it. This is something to discuss with your surgeon. A discussion before placing a patient on a drug with more than a small risk is my practice. The handling of patients does have something to do with your doctor’s philosophy of course.

I usually recommend massage for my normal risk breast implant patients and enjoy a low capsular contracture incidence.

Best Regards,

John Di Saia MD

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Reader Laura on Tabatha Coffey and her Breast Implant Surgery Story

Posted by admin in plastic surgery news on December 14, 2010

Reader Comment:
“Tabatha Coffey has made some claims in her new book about her breast augmentation surgery. First she claims that her implant ruptured an artery. If this had happened wouldn’t she have bled to death by the time she went in for surgery to remove her implants? She also claimed that the implant moved from her chest to her arm pit then onto her shoulder. Is it even possible for an implant to travel up onto your shoulder?”


Gold Coast-born hair stylist Tabatha Coffey – star of US reality TV show Tabatha’s Salon Takeover which is screened on pay TV channel ARENA in Australia – said her implant apparently ruptured an artery and infected her chest. “I had lusted after bigger boobs for years, and then they almost killed me,” the bitchy and foul-mouthed star said. Days after the surgery, her left breast moved up under her arm and onto her shoulder. After extreme pain, she had the implants removed.
Source: heraldsun.com.au/ipad-application/botched-boob-job-almost-kills-tv-star/story-fn6bn80a-1225963027063

Part of this story is likely true, but exaggeration is pretty much certain. Although patients can bleed after breast implant surgery, no one that I have seen or read about has ever died from this. The implants didn’t rupture her artery. It is more far more likely that bleeding occurred after surgery for reasons relating to the operation. Implant migration can happen more commonly with larger implants and/or inexperienced surgeons. Much of this would be more understandable if she turned out to be a smoker. Breast hardening (capsular contracture) and pain after implant placement are more common in smokers and even more common in smokers with bleeding complications.

Best Regards,

John Di Saia MD

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