Dr. Khouri credits the original idea of tissue regeneration to an orthopaedic surgeon in the former Soviet Union, Dr. Ilizarov, who made extremities grow by stretching them. "A simple stretch generates tissue - this is well documented in the scientific community and used as a technique in reconstructive breast surgery after mastectomy -- but it has to be gentle and sustained pulling action."
But there are caveats. First, the time commitment is fairly high and the ideal candidate is a woman whose breasts are smaller than a B cup. Dr. Richard Greco, a plastic surgeon in Atlanta, says "not everyone is an ideal patient –we saw four prospective patients who came to see us about Brava, but two were not adequate candidates because they were too large for the system.”
And, Dr. Khouri agrees that the system is only for a certain patient base: "The Brava system is not for people who want to look like Pamela Anderson or Dolly Parton – if they want that, they should get implants. This is for women who want subtle change. And that is what good plastic surgery is all about - subtlety.”
Dr. Greco also sees the time commitment alone -- ten hours a day for ten weeks -- as something that can immediately rule out a lot of prospective patients: “The good part is that prospective patients can avoid surgery, but there is a lot of compliance involved - it is not like undergoing surgery and after two hours, you have larger breasts.”
To date, the debate rages within the medical and women’s advocacy communities about the safety of implants. “When I developed the Brava system, we were in the implant crisis I was looking for an alternative.” But Dr. Khouri will not go as far as to say that breast implants are unsafe – just that the Brava system provides an alternative:
But Dr. Greco is unsure of Brava's effeciency and is conducting his own tests on the Brava system before he offers it to his patients, and will be coming out with a White Paper later this year.
On the Web, the Brav-argh site (http://people.ne.mediaone.net/drmomentum/bravargh/)is devoted to Brava customers with frustration stories. The site collects links and comments questioning the device's worth. and is replete with stories of women who suffered everything from skin irritation, to temporary swelling, and to brusied egos for being "duped to pay the price for another "false claim" about creating bigger breasts.
The Brava system costs approx. $2500
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