Capsular contraction is caused by the healing process of your body trying to minimise the amount of scar tissue located around your breast implant. As a natural reaction your body will try to make any scar tissue as small as possible, which will close the void created for your implant to sit in. This will place a lot of pressure on your breast implant, and might cause it to be squeezed into an unnatural and painful position. It is still quite unknown as to why capsular contraction occurs, and unfortunately surgeons and doctors still have no solid answers. They believe it might be due to:
Capsular contraction doesn’t affect everyone, and it is not known why it occurs for some women and not for others. There are some steps that you can take to try to lessen the risk of it occurring for you, however it is unclear as to how well these work.
Although you cannot predict if you will suffer from capsular contraction, there are measures that you can take to try to minimise the chances of it forming. These include:
Your surgeon is likely to inform you of these measures before you have your initial breast augmentation surgery, and will be able to give you any further information that you require.
If you are concerned about the risk of capsular contraction your surgeon will be able to talk you through how best to avoid this risk and what steps to take to reduce the likelihood of it occurring to you.
Very low grades of capsular contraction are unlikely to need any corrective surgery. However as the problem increases in severity you will find it gets more uncomfortable and a solution will have to be sought. In very extreme cases of capsular contraction the pressure placed on the implant can cause it to rupture, thus requiring immediate surgery and implant replacement. This only happens very rarely, however, and it is likely that you will have had a corrective procedure performed before this will occur.
The main risk of capsular contraction is the amount of pain that it can give you, and the distortion of your implant that is likely to leave your breasts looking uneven and misshapen. Many people are deeply unhappy with the appearance of their implant during an episode of capsular contraction, and it is usually for this reason that they seek treatment.
Treating capsular contraction holds risks of its own, as the procedures used can be potentially problematic. Surgery contains risk of infection, bleeding and allergies to anaesthetics, and a closed capsulotomy has the risk of rupturing your implant and causing a large amount of pain. These are things that you ought to have considered before having the initial breast augmentation, however, and your surgeon ought to make you aware during your consultation sessions.
« Symptoms of a Capsular Contraction Closed Capsulotomy »