Breast augmentation

In medicine, breast augmentation and augmentation mammoplasty are terms that describe a cosmetic surgery procedure that uses either a breast implant or a fat-graft to realise a mammoplasty to increase the size, change the shape, or alter the texture of the breasts, either as a cosmetic procedure or as correction of congenital defects of the breasts and the chest wall.

To augment the breast hemisphere, a breast implant filled with either saline solution or a silicone gel creates a spherical augmentation. The fat-graft transfer augments the size and corrects contour defects of the breast hemisphere with grafts of the adipocyte fat tissue, drawn from the body of the woman. In a breast reconstruction procedure, a tissue expander (a temporary breast implant device) is emplaced and filled with saline solution to shape and enlarge the implant pocket to receive and accommodate the breast-implant prosthesis.

In most instances of fat-graft breast augmentation, the increase is of modest volume, usually only one bra cup size or less, which is thought to be the physiological limit allowed by the metabolism of the human body.