Capsulectomy is a corrective surgery that involves removal of the capsule surrounding a breast implant following capsular contracture. I’m often asked if I charge for capsulectomy surgery.  Yes.  If one of my own patients presents with capsular contracture after surgery I do everything in my power to resolve the condition medically.  But if the patient is refractory to medical treatment then I must proceed with capsulectomy surgery.  This is a very difficult procedure that requires careful removal of the capsular scar tissue while preserving the normal muscle and breast tissue.  Rates of capsular contracture recurrence are much lower when the implant is replaced so after the capsular tissue is removed and the breast pocket is washed with antibiotic solution, I place a new implant of equal size to the other breast.

While a breast augmentation surgery typically takes me between 30-50 minutes, capsulectomy with implant exhange often requires over an hour of surgery time.  If capsular contracture affects both breasts, that time is doubled.  So despite the fact that this condition is affecting one of my own patients, capsulectomy requires significant surgical time and resources (including a new implant).  There will be a charge for the procedure but we keep these fees very low.  Our primary goal in capsulectomy surgery is to resolve the condition without capsular contracture recurring.

A wise man once said that the only surgeon without complications is one that doesn’t operate. There is no greater teacher than experience and experience teaches us as surgeons that this statement is 100% true.  I’ve heard world-famous surgeons profess to having zero complications and those of us who operate on large numbers of patients know that it is simply impossible to avoid complications.  The question is not whether or not you as a surgeon will have complications, it’s how you handle them when they arise.

I do everything in my power to achieve a patient’s desired results and to avoid complications.  But if I do the identical procedure on 100 patients using identical tools, sutures, equipment, the same nursing and anesthesia staff, and identical postoperative instructions then a few of these patients will inevitably experience some minor complications.  Everyone heals differently .  Everyone scars differently.  Everyone is asymmetrical before surgery and they will be asymmetrical after surgery despite my efforts as a surgeon to make asymmetries less noticeable.