How is breast augmentation surgery performed?

Breast augmentation has become an extremely popular topic among women. However, many are concerned about the procedure involved including the pre-surgery preparations and the post-surgery treatment.

As a pre-surgery procedure, patients who opt for breast augmentation surgery undergo a thorough medical examination. This includes a blood test and this is done to make sure that the patient is healthy and will face no risks from the anesthesia. Moreover, patients will have to abstain from food and drink for at least eight hours before the procedure. Once patients are under the effects of calming drugs, the IV sedation drugs are slowly administered. The patient eventually falls asleep and does not wake up till an hour later. However, the procedure will last only twenty five to thirty minutes.

Once the patient is asleep, the entire breast is anesthetized. The anesthesia will last for 18 to 24 hours. This ensures that the patient does not wake up to any pain at all. Patients will not feel any discomfort unless they cough, sneeze or laugh.

After the breast has been numbed, the entire chest is cleaned with a surgical soap to kill germs on the skin. Then the surgeon makes an incision in the area decided by the patient. In most cases, the incision is made on the crease beneath the breast. For saline implants, the incision is an inch long and for gel implants, the incision is three inches long.

The incision goes through the skin, fat and further down. This is not done with a knife or scissors. It is usually done through a process of expansion after a tunnel has been created on top of the muscle or below it. An expander is used to expand the muscle to about 150 percent of the size of the final implant. The muscle is then drained and removed and the permanent implant is placed.

The pocket of the implant is sterilized and stitched in three layers. The deeper stitches are permanent ones. The stitches in the fatty layer will get absorbed over time and will eventually disappear. As far as the stitches on the skin are concerned, they are all buried and out of sight. This ensures no ugly stitch marks. At the end of the breast augmentation surgical procedure, the only evidence that remains is a scar which is as thin as a hair!

The biggest advantage of breast augmentation surgery is that there is very little bleeding. The average person will lose as little as two or three c.c.s of blood. This is approximately one quarter of the blood lost during a blood test in a lab!

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