3D Imaging for Breast Augmentation Candidates
A UK technology company has come out with a 3D imaging system that is designed to provide a virtual review of a breast augmentation procedure, complete with before-and-after pictures. From a clinical point of view, here’s what the system has to offer.
The 3D rendering will allow the patient to see what her breasts will look like post-surgery from various angles, including looking down. Further, it is programmed to be time-sensitive so the potential patient can see the results of the procedure after two weeks and after six months or a year, when the implants have had a chance to settle into their pockets.
The 3D imaging system (known as Vectra 3D) can be programmed so that when it captures the image of the patient’s breast it can provide precise measurements for the doctor for various steps in the procedure. The software is also sufficiently adaptive that it cam provide an image for the breast with a silicon implant as well as with a saline implant, helping the patient to make that particular decision.
The equipment can not only juxtapose images of a silicon implant and a saline implant, it can also superimpose an image of the implanted breast over the pre-surgery breast. The notion of using the patient’s own body for the implant decision-making process instead of before-and-after pictures of other women seems to be a qualitative step forward.
The 3D tool also allows the doctor and patient to have a more in-depth discussion about the impact of the surgery and the patient’s expectations. Rather than projecting results in general terms, the doctor will have an image to work with that shows the results after three weeks and after a year or more. That notion would seem to require some knowledge of the health of the patient’s connective tissue, but no mention is made by the manufacturer of programming that particular variable.
The manufacturer touts these features of the device: “One system, 2 fields-of-view. Unique multi-position camera modules provide ideal solutions for both wide and medium field imaging needs in a single system.” The Vectra 3D uses multiple camera angles – multiple cameras – to develop a 2D image that the software turns into a 3D likeness. Special lighting is included with the Vectra so that the cameras function as they should.
Of the precision measurements, the manufacturer makes this statement: the Vectra 3D will “…Accurately measure distance, area, volume, angle, and symmetry for case assessment, treatment planning, and pre/post review” For breast augmentations, the system uses a one hundred eighty degree view to develop its 3D image. It is scalable, however: the doctor can add additional cameras to develop a three hundred sixty degree image and presumably use it to analyze body lifts or procedures that impact the entire body in some fashion.
A doctor in New Jersey is advertising his practice as the “first in the world” to employ this technology. He faces a difficult discussion, however, if the practical results of an augmentation procedure do not match up to this virtual breast as presented by cameras and software.
