Alnaif N, Safran T, Viezel-Mathieu A, Alhalabi B, Dionisopoulos T. Treatment of breast animation deformity: a systematic review. J Plast Reconstr Aesthet Surg. 2019;72:781-788. doi: 10.1016/j.bjps.2019.02.025
Disclosure
Dr. Epstein is a paid investigator in the Motiva U.S. FDA clinical trial and is compensated by Establishment Labs to train surgeons on the Preservé breast augmentation technique. He discloses this relationship in all public communications involving Motiva or Preservé. Dr. Epstein owns stock in Establishment Labs.
What This Study Found
Animation deformity is when an implant placed under the chest muscle visibly shifts or distorts every time that muscle flexes. This review pooled results from every published study on treating it and found that moving the implant to a plane above the muscle successfully resolved the problem in all 214 documented cases, though not without some risk of its own.
Key Findings
- Systematic review of 504 articles; 8 met strict inclusion criteria, covering 214 treated breasts
- Most cases (187 of 214) were treated by moving the implant to a prepectoral (above-the-muscle) plane
- All 214 documented cases were successfully corrected
- Overall complication rate after treatment: 11.6%
- Underlying message: animation deformity is likely more common than reported, and rising in frequency as more implants are placed under the muscle
Why This Matters for Preservé Patients
This is useful background for explaining, in plain terms, one of the specific problems that placing an implant above the muscle (rather than under it) is designed to avoid from the start, rather than needing to fix later.
