The patient is a 32 year old woman who simply wished larger breasts and wanted silicone gel implants. She was an A and wanted to be a B plus because of her small frame and not wanting to look too obvious. She tried different volumes on at her initial consultation and liked the volume around 220 cc. She was very happy with her volume choice after surgery and noted improvement in her breast shape.
In general, different volumes create a different shape for a specific patient even though the implant shape is the same. If an experiment could be done where volume could be successively added to make a patients breast larger, as the breast became larger, the shape would continue to improve. After more volume is added the shape quality might peak and thereafter decrease and yield a poorer breast shape with successive volume. There are many reasons for this effect. One is that in order to put more volume behind the breast a wider and more vertically high (and low) space must be created. This makes the skin envelope larger and that can have positive and negative (if too high a volume) effects on the breast shape. Also, as the pocket size is increased, the outside attachments next to the breast attaching skin to the chest are interrupted and this can lead to drooping either initially or over time. The patient can decide ultimately what size breast implant she wishes taking into consideration the size implant she wants and also noting how that volume might affect her shape. The resulting volume can be a compromise between shape and size so that the patient can get the best outcome for what she wishes in both the size and shape departments!
