Post Breast reduction/Aug

Hi, my Mom is an obese woman that had large breasts, so with my encouragement, she proceeded with a plastic surgeon to have a breast reduction.  After the surgery, she was literally left with an "A" cup.  It was terrible due to her size. So, what they suggested was to have implants placed in, which her HMO approved and they proceeded.  Unfortunately, it didn't do too much for her at all.  She is probably about a 46 A or B cup now and its hard to find a bra to fit her.  This has done terrible things for her self image, even more now.  She was just told she needed to lose weight so that the form of her breasts would come into place....??? Well, I guess my question is...Is there anything else to do? She literally looks like she had a mastectomy and need to wear a prosthetic bra.  Due to the senstivity of the subject, it's hard for me to suggest it. Thanks

[Howard Rosenberg, MD]

Your mom was clearly over-reduced in size.  Even with proper reduction in size, achieving good shape in an obese patient can be very difficult.  While weight reduction in your mom would be ideal, this is probably not highly likely.  However, if she wishes to ultimately have better breast shape it will probably require weight loss with additional surgery.