Recovery after breast augmentation is designed to day to be short and very lifestyle-limiting. Anti-inflammatory medications and early arm physical therapy are the mainstays of an aggressive recovery program after breast implants. Long gone are the need for bulky dressings and restrictions on physical activity after surgery. The less pain a patient has, the more physical therapy they can do to further expedite their recovery. In an effort to control pain after breast augmentation, I often employ Actipatch pulsed electromagnetic therapy. (topical patches) To determine whether this was beneficial, a prospective clinical study was done.

A prospective clinical study of fifty (48) women undergoing breast augmentation was conducted from November 1 2007 to November 1 2008. Women underwent breast augmentation with either saline or silicone breast implants through a transaxillary (saline) or inframammary (silicone) incision. Patients were aware that they would receive Actipatch therapy as part of their postoperative protocol. At the completion of surgery, Actipatch devices were placed over the medial and superior aspect of the breasts (over the pectoralis muscle), taped into position inside their surgical bra. For the first twenty patients on the left breast, the device was activated (activating tab pulled) and on the opposite right breast the device was not activated. (activating tab was trimmed but not pulled) The patients were not informed which devices were not active. In the next twenty-eight patients, the device locations were reversed. Patients were instructed to wear the devices for the first seventy-two hours after surgery after which they were to be discarded. Patients were given a sheet so that they could rate their postoperative pain on a scale (1 – 10 and, most importantly, compare and rate the pain between the two breasts after the third day of surgery.

In the first twenty patients, fourteen rated the active patch breast as less uncomfortable than the control patch side. In the next twenty-eight patients, twenty-one rated the active side less painful. In total, thirty-five patients (73%) reported less pain and uncomfortability on the breast that received pulsed electromagnetic therapy than the control side.

Pulsed electromagnetic therapy has been around for a long time and its potential benefits are based on creating an anti-inflammatory effect. Actipatch provides a simple, low-cost method of delivery of this healing technology. In this breast augmentation study, Actipatch demonstrated less pain within the first few days after surgery. Given its ease of use and no potential for creating any adverse problems, its use as part of a breast augmentation recovery protocol appears to have offer patients some real benefits.