Friday, October 31, 2008

Axis Three Launches Groundbreaking Surgical Simulation Software -- 'Portrait 3d', First Physics-Based Software for Breast Procedures

LOS ANGELES, Oct 31, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Axis Three, the leader and pioneer of surgical simulation tools for the cosmetic surgery industry, today announced the launch of the Portrait 3d software product, the first simulation software based on physics-driven tissue typing. It is the first product of its type ever to be launched for the cosmetic surgery marketplace.
"Portrait 3d is the culmination of five years of development and is based purely in science," said Jim Blumel, VP of US Operations. "It represents a major advancement in the 3D surgical simulation market and significantly propels Axis Three far ahead of any competing products by leaps and bounds." The product was recently profiled on the CBS show 'The Doctors'.
Like its XS-300 predecessor, Portrait 3d enables surgeons to visually communicate and collaborate on the outcomes of various breast procedures by using the patient's own image presented in photo-realistic 3d. For the first time ever, accurate volumetric and linear measurements can be taken from the patient's own 3d model, and the results of actual surgery can be simulated, measured, and viewed from all angles.
"Portrait 3d is the next generation of our simulation software," said Paul Moffett, Head of Technology. "It is the first product that incorporates tissue typing based on skin elasticity and parenchyma/glandular tissue firmness."
Portrait 3d also contains additional significant advancements including:
Implant Manufacturers Catalogues: A full range of accurate, digital versions of implants from the leading implant manufacturers are available for use within the simulations physics engine. This allows subtle differences between variants that are extremely hard to visualize with less advanced systems.
Lighting Engine: Accurate virtual shadowing can be calculated during the simulation, ensuring a 'true to life' rendering of the implant.
Multiple Comparative Views: Ultimate flexibility to display and compare all patient images and simulations.
Freehand Notation Tools: A series of virtual marker tools let notes and diagrams be drawn over the patient scan.
The response from women who have experienced the Portrait 3d during their surgical consultation has been overwhelmingly positive. A sample group of 350 patients surveyed illustrates the value of Portrait 3d to their surgical consultation:
-- 96% said it improved communication with their doctor
-- 94% said it reduced uncertainty about the surgery outcome
-- 89% said it helped select appropriate implant size
-- 94% said it enhanced their overall consultation experience
"After seeing the post-op simulation on their own body, patients feel much more comfortable and confident -- even more excited - about proceeding with the surgery," said Dr. Paul Zwiebel, a plastic surgeon in Denver, Colorado.
The Portrait 3d is now available throughout the United States, with service and support provided locally.
Axis Three will be exhibiting at the ASPS trade show in Chicago, Illinois on November 2-4, 2008. Anyone interested in seeing a demonstration of the system and learning more about its capabilities are invited to attend.
About Axis Three
Axis Three is the leader and pioneer of surgical simulation tools for the medical industry. Through an exclusive licensing agreement, Axis Three has integrated image capture technology developed by Siemens with its own proprietary software to create a powerful, flexible and intuitive platform that can be tailored to a variety of surgical needs. Axis Three has offices in Fairfield, Connecticut; New York, NY, Los Angeles, CA, Dallas Texas, and Belfast, Northern Ireland. For more information about Axis Three, please visit www.axisthree.com.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Pre-surgery imaging eases implant anxiety

Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Last updated: Tuesday October 28, 2008, EDT 8:25 PM
BY ABIGAIL LEICHMAN
SPECIAL TO THE RECORD

New three-dimensional medical imaging systems are helping mastectomy patients in North Jersey get a better idea of how they will look after reconstructive surgery.

The new technology "helps alleviate the patient’s stress over what she might look like," said Dr. Allen Rosen of The Plastic Surgery Group in Montclair. "Now they don’t need to imagine. They go into surgery feeling more reassured."

Rosen provided a physician’s perspective to the engineering team at Canfield Scientific in Fairfield, which spent two years developing software for a 3-D system. In January, he received the first Breast Sculptor for his practice. There are now a handful in use nationwide.

"Just as all women come in different shapes and sizes, so do implants," he said. "The biggest unknown with breast surgery is determining the size of the implant and hoping that they aren’t going to be too big or not big enough. This technology gives the individual woman the chance to see what she will look like after a certain implant."

When Marianne Leone of Lincoln Park visited Rosen six weeks after her mastectomy in February, the doctor took photos of her using a special camera with multiple strobes and lenses. He was then able to use a cursor to manipulate the resulting 3-D digitized images from any angle. Finally, using the software’s 3-D library of styles and sizes of gel and saline implant models, he had Leone "try them on" before choosing the best option for her.

Leone said the 3-D system helped her decide to have her remaining breast augmented to match the shape of the reconstructed side.

"It gave me a great visual image, not just like sticking an implant in a bra," said Leone, 47. "The reconstructed breast is rounder and fuller and doesn’t sag like [a breast] does on a woman my age. I saw that there was going to be a big difference and that gave me more incentive to have them both done."

Dr. Steve Fallek, an Englewood Cliffs plastic surgeon, was in on the development of another 3-D imaging system. He was one of three physicians in the nation to start using the Axis Three Portrait 3-D system a year ago.

"This gives a better, more natural way to see how the patient will look from different angles and with different sizes of implants," he said. "I can plot different points on the breast and I can add or subtract tissue and change the nipple position."

The two-dimensional systems in use today just don’t give women a realistic idea of what they will look like, Rosen said.

"It was more like drawing a breast on a picture, making the process difficult for both physicians and patients," said Rosen, a former Teaneck resident who has been doing breast reconstruction for 20 years at hospitals, including St. Mary’s in Passaic.

Both physicians said the advanced imaging helps patients with their expectations.

"If the patient says, ‘I have small breasts and I want to go bigger,’ we can show her what that will look like," said Fallek, who works mainly at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.

Three-dimensional imaging also helps the surgeon, said Rosen, an assistant clinical professor in the department of plastic surgery at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark.

"The Breast Sculptor gives me an amazing ability to predict what I might have to do in surgery," he said. "We’re craftsmen and artists as well as physicians."

Rosen thinks more patients will begin to demand the service.

"It’s especially important to me that breast cancer patients learn about this," he said. "These women are thirsting for information on options in breast reconstruction."

Even better than the speedy recovery, Leone said, is the reassurance her new look gives to her husband and their two girls, ages 13 and 11, who had been devastated by their mother’s illness.

"This made me feel I was put back together again," she said.

New three-dimensional medical imaging systems are helping mastectomy patients in North Jersey get a better idea of how they will look after reconstructive surgery.

FILE PHOTO
"This made me feel I was put back together again," said Marianne Leone of Lincoln Park.

The new technology "helps alleviate the patient’s stress over what she might look like," said Dr. Allen Rosen of The Plastic Surgery Group in Montclair. "Now they don’t need to imagine. They go into surgery feeling more reassured."

Rosen provided a physician’s perspective to the engineering team at Canfield Scientific in Fairfield, which spent two years developing software for a 3-D system. In January, he received the first Breast Sculptor for his practice. There are now a handful in use nationwide.

"Just as all women come in different shapes and sizes, so do implants," he said. "The biggest unknown with breast surgery is determining the size of the implant and hoping that they aren’t going to be too big or not big enough. This technology gives the individual woman the chance to see what she will look like after a certain implant."

When Marianne Leone of Lincoln Park visited Rosen six weeks after her mastectomy in February, the doctor took photos of her using a special camera with multiple strobes and lenses. He was then able to use a cursor to manipulate the resulting 3-D digitized images from any angle. Finally, using the software’s 3-D library of styles and sizes of gel and saline implant models, he had Leone "try them on" before choosing the best option for her.

Leone said the 3-D system helped her decide to have her remaining breast augmented to match the shape of the reconstructed side.

"It gave me a great visual image, not just like sticking an implant in a bra," said Leone, 47. "The reconstructed breast is rounder and fuller and doesn’t sag like [a breast] does on a woman my age. I saw that there was going to be a big difference and that gave me more incentive to have them both done."

Dr. Steve Fallek, an Englewood Cliffs plastic surgeon, was in on the development of another 3-D imaging system. He was one of three physicians in the nation to start using the Axis Three Portrait 3-D system a year ago.

"This gives a better, more natural way to see how the patient will look from different angles and with different sizes of implants," he said. "I can plot different points on the breast and I can add or subtract tissue and change the nipple position."

The two-dimensional systems in use today just don’t give women a realistic idea of what they will look like, Rosen said.

"It was more like drawing a breast on a picture, making the process difficult for both physicians and patients," said Rosen, a former Teaneck resident who has been doing breast reconstruction for 20 years at hospitals, including St. Mary’s in Passaic.

Both physicians said the advanced imaging helps patients with their expectations.

"If the patient says, ‘I have small breasts and I want to go bigger,’ we can show her what that will look like," said Fallek, who works mainly at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.

Three-dimensional imaging also helps the surgeon, said Rosen, an assistant clinical professor in the department of plastic surgery at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark.

"The Breast Sculptor gives me an amazing ability to predict what I might have to do in surgery," he said. "We’re craftsmen and artists as well as physicians."

Rosen thinks more patients will begin to demand the service.

"It’s especially important to me that breast cancer patients learn about this," he said. "These women are thirsting for information on options in breast reconstruction."

Even better than the speedy recovery, Leone said, is the reassurance her new look gives to her husband and their two girls, ages 13 and 11, who had been devastated by their mother’s illness.

"This made me feel I was put back together again," she said.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Slim Evidence for Effectiveness of Cellulite Treatments


smooth shapesPlenty of people would be glad to take your money and give you cellulite treatments. But there’s not much high-quality evidence that the effects of any treatment will last more than a few hours or days, the WSJ reports.

Most treatments use some kind of massager that makes the tissue swell. The temporary swelling eliminates the dimples that characterize cellulite. But when the swelling goes down, the dimples come back.

FDA approval for the devices used in the treatments is based only on fleeting results; the agency doesn’t evaluate how long the change lasts.

New treatments add a laser or some other energy source that’s supposed to have an effect on the fat cells under the skin, but there’s no proof that this improves long-term outcomes.

“There’s nothing that has been shown in any objective way to create improvement for cellulite,” Robert A. Weiss, president-elect of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, told the WSJ.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Breast Enhancement

While my wife was reading her 800 page Vogue, I happened to glance over and see an ad for the BRAVA breast enhancement system. For years the back pages of women’s magazines have had these types of ads and uniformly breast enhancement pills, creams, and other products do not work. What makes this interesting is that the BRAVA system does work. It has legitimately been studied and published in academic plastic surgery journals. It is a vacuum/suction device placed on the breasts and it does stimulate the breast tissue to grow. However, it requires months of use and will only increase the breast size a small amount. It might work well if you have a party coming up, but for long term, bigger, better results breast implants are still the best option

The PULL procedure

One of the most difficult and highly visible areas of the body to loose fat and excess skin in is the pubic area. In some cases, people are genetically predisposed to a sagging “pouch” in the pelvic. In other cases, due to pregnancy or extreme weight loss, the abdomen fails to return to its original shape. In an attempt to “fix” this area of the body, some people are hitting the gym, while others are turning to plastic surgery to achieve their desired look. While body contouring works well to eliminate many of the unsightly sags in the abdominal area, some patients have skin sagging in the pubic area as well. The excess skin—or pannus—that hangs down from the abdomen isn’t effectively treated with liposuction or a tummy tuck.

I have created my own technique for targeting sagging skin in the pubic area. I call this procedure PULL (Pubic Undermining Lift and Liposuction). It is a combination of skin and fat excision in the upper pubic area combined with liposuction of the lower pubic and surrounding areas. Two small incisions are made in the pubic area (near the bikini line). First, liposuction is done to remove excess fat in the area. Then the incision is enlarged and the skin is lifted and pulled to create a smooth appearance. The excess skin is cut away and the skin lines are closed.

The PULL procedure can be performed alone or in combination with a standard tummy tuck or a body lift. The procedure takes 1-2 hours and is done either in a hospital or “surgicenter,” and patients are generally sent home that same day. There is very little bruising afterwards and most patients recover within a few days with almost no down time. The scar is easily hidden in the same crease as a standard tummy tuck. The scar itself extends only over the pubic area.

The PULL procedure isn't just for weight loss patients. Many people are becoming self-conscious about sagging skin in the pubic area. But most significantly, the PULL technique is a safe and effective way to rejuvenate this area without resorting to genital surgery. With the emphasis on low-cut fashion, the PULL procedure may benefit these patients, as well.

Welcome to Beauty lies....

I thought the best way to start is to post some of the articles that I've written for some of the beauty magazines in the past. Many of you have requested reprints so in this age of modern media it is easier to just post a blog. As many of you know, there is too much disinformation out there in too many beauty publications driven by way too many publicists. It has been my goal to provide my patients and audience with an honest and thoughtful opinion about plastic surgery. At the same time I hope to entertain my audience and provide a laugh and a glimpse into the life of a plastic surgeon. Thanks