Welcome to MIAMI- Beauty in Paradise

Day 2 Baker Gordon Surgery Conference:
Today we covered many topics. More live surgery. More videos.
More experts getting up and telling us how it is, to be then contradicted by the next speaker.
Some of the interesting topics covered include:
   Issue: Capsular contracture
   What is it: Hardening of scar tissue around a breast implant causing tightness, and distortion of shape.
   Points made: Do not yet know why it happens. Do not have way to avoid it. Not related to implant fill type, implant texture, or implant position relative to the chest muscle.
  
   Issue: Fat grafting
   What is it: Collecting fat from one part of the body and placing it another, in order to make that recipient site fuller.
   Points made: Increasing in popularity. Used in face, buttocks and now, breast. Don't yet know best way to harvest the fat, best donor site, fat preparation, or injection technique--we need some scientific research on this issue. We need to know these things to get the best "take" of the transposed fat. There may even be some positive skin quality effects from this transferred fat. In the meantime we can use lessons learned, and the artistic sensibility we have developed, from the injection-sculpting the use of nonpermanent fillers to the face.

   Issue: Fat graft breast augmentation
   What is it: Transfer of patients own fat from elsewhere on body to the breasts in order to make them bigger.
   Points made: Controversial, limited in effectiveness, legally tenuous, not yet ready for prime-time.

   Issue: Sub-Fascial Breast Augmentation
   What is it: Placement of a breast implant above the chest muscle, but below the thin, tough layer of muscle fascia covering the muscle.
   Points Made: Demonstrated by Dr. Ruth Graf of Brazil. Benefits of technique not obvious. Technique tedious.

Reception at the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens tonight. Maybe I'll find Dr Graf and ask her more about her technique. It wont be in Portuguese however, since when I did an Aesthetic Surgery Fellowship in Rio De Janeiro with Dr.  Ivo Pitanguy I was unable to learn any permanent Portuguese at all! Tough language!
-drB