Robert Whitfield MD explains that large breast implants can stretch and damage sensory nerves, especially in tight skin, causing numbness or pain. Fat transfer avoids this problem. He's found nerves ending in the implant capsule during explantation surgery.
So this seems like a safer alternative for women who want breast enhancement. But does it affect sensation? Because I know women with breast implants who've lost sensation or they lost sensation in their nipples after they had them taken out. So if you do a fat transfer, are you going to have sensation problems?
It should not create a sensation issue because think of like the nerve supply. There's nerves that terminate around the nipple complex and the superficial layer of the epidermis, epidermis and dermis. The 12th nerve comes in from the side. So when you place a device and rapidly expand and stretch it, you affect those nerves, particularly the 12th nerve. That is a common problem in patients who had large implants placed very, very tight skin envelope, meaning maybe they haven't had kids, which is typical. And the rapid expansion creates too much stretch on those and that caus the, you know, what you've described an absence of sensation or loss of sensation. And when I do their explant, I will find that nerve terminating into the capsule of the implant. Many times they may have nerve pain, they may have absence sensation as you've described. But I've seen all manner of nerves involved with the side of that implant as it runs from the armpit, from back through the armpit to the side. And those are very, you know.
