'surgery' posts

What is Breast Reduction Surgery?

A breast reduction (reduction mammoplasty) is a surgical procedure that reduces breast weight to improve both biomechanical function and aesthetics. After breast reduction surgery, the breast is ‘lighter’ and has a better shape. Many women with heavy and pendulous breasts suffer from neck pain, back pain and head aches for many decades of life. Self-consciousness in social settings and the inability to find properly fitting clothing are also frequent concerns. A breast reduction can significantly improve these functional and aesthetic issues.

Patient satisfaction with breast reduction surgery is extremely high. When the American Society of Plastic Surgeons surveyed a large group of women after breast reduction surgery recently, over 95% of patients responded that they would have the surgery done again. Breast reduction surgery consistently ranks at the top of patient satisfaction surveys for all procedures performed by plastic surgeons.

How is Breast Reduction Surgery Done?

Depending on ...

Breast Augmentation

Breast augmentation surgery is a safe and reliable way to enhance breast shape and size. Breast enhancement using breast implants can give a woman more proportional shape and may improve self esteem.

Breast augmentation surgery is an operation designed to improve the shape and volume of the breast. The operation addresses common breast aesthetic issues, such as lack of breast volume, flattened breast shape and drooping nipple position. The operation can be combined with breast lift (mastopexy) procedures to further enhance the breast form.

To learn more about Breast Augmentation Surgery, including before and after photos, visit www.scottsattlermd.com

Liposuction is a cosmetic surgical procedure that sculpts and shapes the tummy, flanks, hips, thighs, arms and neck performed by Dr. Scott Sattler, plastic surgeon in the Seattle metro area

Do you have a groin bulge that seems to come and go, often absent upon waking in the morning? Or perhaps you already know you have a hernia? Hernias are very common and occur in approximately 1 in 4 males (less common in women), so chances are you or someone you know has or has had an inguinal hernia. The main question I always get asked is "should it be fixed?"  

As a general surgeon, I see 4-5 patients every week with a newly diagnosed inguinal hernia. Many are self-referred after discovering a lump in the groin, while many others are referred from their primary care provider after the hernia is discovered during the physical exam. After verifying that a hernia is the correct diagnosis (other possibilities are a groin strain, swollen lymph node, etc.), I have a discussion which addresses the aforementioned question. As an aside, these are very common and also found in the pediatric population (see a similar discussion by one of our pediatric surgeons)

To understand hernias...

Surgeons are often Type A personalities, the ones who sit in the front of the class, who volunteer for everything, who stay scrubbed in the OR all day with appendicitis and do a post-op check before checking themselves into the emergency department (yes, that was me.) As such, surgeons are often dismissive of the subspecialty of breast surgery. The surgeries are not as complex as cardiac bypass surgery or Whipple procedures for pancreatic cancer. In fact, it’s often a rotation for interns. I was a Type A personality. I had no plans to do breast surgery.

Then, a funny thing happened. I had my first son during residency. Planned with military precision, of course, to coincide with the beginning of my designated research years, as I had hoped to squeeze another baby in there somewhere. After his birth, I would breastfeed, because that is what Type A mothers do these days. It’s the best! Of course, I would do the best! However, like many mothers out there, we had an incredibly rocky start. Poor latch with inadequate weight gain. Triple feeding with pumped milk. Cracked nipples leading to mastitis. As a Type A person, I threw myself into research in an effort to solve the problems. Not just the many, many baby books out there, but Medline searches on breastfeeding management. I learned more than I ever had in my surgery textbooks about the breast, the physiology of lactation that is both incredibly simple and enormously complex, and most importantly, miraculous. I was reminded constantly in my reading of the importance of preserving this ability to breastfeed my son, for his and my health, and how challenging that could be.

I would sit in my office, working on surgical infections research, as I pumped and read about normal breasts and infected breasts and cancerous breasts. Antibiotic rotations in ICUs and glucose control became less exciting than being able to offer targeted medical advice to a frustrated friend in Boston, whose refractory mastitis was being met with shrugs from some of her local doctors until we correctly identified MRSA as the source. Maybe it wasn’t saving lives, but it saved her breastfeeding relationship with her child. Who knows, maybe in the end it would be saving lives! I read more ....

SEATTLE, Oct. 4, 2012 - A living, unrelated kidney transplant involving two former co-workers - and now grandmothers - from Anchorage, AL, will take place at Swedish/First Hill on Monday, Oct. 8. The two women - Judie Wolfe (donor) and Terri Teas (recipient) - recently shared their compelling story with the Anchorage Daily News.

You may have seen a post (Forbes) or two (CNET) in your various newsfeeds recently about the fact the Swedish is live-tweeting and Instagramming a cochlear implant (hearing restoration) surgery tomorrow, on October 2, 2012. (Check it out at www.swedish.org/swedishhear.)

A question we've gotten is why live-tweet or Instagram a surgery? Haven't you done that already? (Yes, we've used Twitter and video before (to educate patients about deep brain stimulation and knee replacement procedures, among others), but not Instagram.)

We're learning from our patients how hard it is to access information if you are deaf or have hearing loss, and, per a study in The Lancet, how this impacts the quality of healthcare. And so we decided to create additional resources to help raise awareness about the option of cochlear implants. (In this Mashable post,  Dr. Backous said only 10% of people who qualify for cochlear implants end up receiving them.)

Here's an example of one of the many stories that inspired this series:

(For closed captioning press the CC button located in the middle of the action bar that appears at the bottom of the video when it is playing. For the best results, watch the video in full screen by pressing the full screen button located in the right hand corner of the action bar.)

People with hearing loss are not able to call on the phone to get more information or ask questions, so we decided to document via text (tweets) and images (Instagram photos) the cochlear implant procedure.

We're also hosting two text-based chats next Wednesday on October 10, 2012 (at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Pacific Time). The chats will enable patients and interested viewers to talk directly via the chat (text based - no audio) to Dr. Backous, audiologists, patients who have had the procedure, and patient advocacy groups. If you have unanswered questions about hearing loss or cochlear implants, we hope you'll join us for the discussion. (You can ...

(Click 'read more' to see a full recap from the live event)