Endoscopic Breast Augmentation

For decades, endoscopic surgery has been widely practiced in numerous medical procedures. However, it has recently been incorporated in plastic surgery operations and its early use has been promising for plastic surgeons. Essentially, an endoscopic breast augmentation refers to breast augmentation surgery that utilizes an endoscope. An endoscope is basically an instrument that incorporates special viewing technology that enables a surgeon to view images of the patient's internal body structure through small incisions.

Endoscopic Breast Augmentation utilizes an endoscope, which is an instrument that contains two basic parts:

• A tubular probe that contains a tiny camera and bright light. This is inserted through a small incision.
• A viewing screen, which magnifies the transmitted images of the body's internal structures to a screen that the surgeon views during the treatment.

During an endoscopic breast augmentation, the plastic surgeon is able to work easier in positioning breast implants within the patient's chest wall. Utilizing the same basic techniques incorporated in a regular breast augmentation, the patient benefits from an endoscopic breast augmentation by having fewer scars.

This is because endoscopic surgeries tend to leave much smaller scars that are more likely to be hidden. This is because only a few small incisions are required to insert the endoscope probe into the patient. These incisions are less than one inch long and the small size of these incisions helps to minimize some of the after effects of the surgery. Additionally, in some cases of endoscopic surgeries, the patient's recovery time was much shorter in treatments that were performed as open procedures.

Within an endoscopic breast augmentation, the plastic surgion will make a small incision in either the patient's underarm or navel. This allows the surgeon a number of benefits in their treatment of patients. For example, endoscopy breast augmentation enables plastic surgeons to correct capsular contracture (a phenomenon in which scar tissue forms around an implant causing it to feel firm) and also allows the surgeon to evaluate any existing implants in the patient.

Although endoscopic breast augmentation has a number of advantages, it is important to emphasize that it is a relatively new procedure used in plastic surgery. Endoscopic breast augmentation should only be performed by a board certified plastic surgeon that has numerous years of experience performing this procedure. Additionally, the best candidates for endoscopic breast augmentation are patients that do not have large amounts of loose hanging skin around the chest area where the surgery is being performed. If you are interested in this procedure, it is recommended that you consult with your plastic surgeon in greater detail.