Breast implant incisions

Your doctor will select one of the following breast implant incisions:

• Inframammary: Your surgeon will make the incision so that it will fall just above or in the crease where the breast and chest come together. This is not only the most common and reliable of all breast implant incisions but also allows to use any of the four possible implant locations and gives the surgeon optimal access and visibility and thus best control over placement of the implant. The downside to using this method is that the scaring can be visible. The lack of well developed inframammary crease to hide the incission is a contraindication for this approach.
• Periareolar: This incision is placed along the bottom half of the areolar border. The scars can be camouflaged by placing them at the junction of the pigmented and the non-pigmented skin and by using the zigzag incision. Silicone gel implants can be difficult to place via periareolar incision due to their size. This approach gives the surgeon very good access similiarly to the inframammary incision. The periareolar incision is very likely to be selected when adjustments to the inframammary fold or breast lift are planned.

The following two techniques offer scarless breasts but require considerable skill. It can be difficult to find a plastic surgeon that is skilled and experienced with these techniques, especially if you need other than subglandular implant placement. The surgeon has to work away from the breast, without good access. Also, revisions of transumbilical-placed and transaxillary-placed implants often require the use of standard incisions.

• Transumbilical/TUBA: This incision is placed in the upper fold of the navel (belly-button) and leaves one small inconspicuous scar. The procedure is called Transumbilical Breast Augmentation (TUBA) and may be performed bluntly or with the use of an endoscope (a flexible tube with a camera on the end). Statistical research indicates TUBA decreases the recovery time and lessens risk of injury to sensory nerves of the nipple and breast in the average patient.
• Transaxillary: This incision is placed in the skin folds of the armpit and leaves one small scar generally invisible even with the arm raised. Again, the procedure may be performed bluntly or with the use of an endoscope. This method cannot be used for the placement of silicone gel breast implants. Unfortunately the transaxillary breast augmentation poses a greater risk of breast assimetry after surgery

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