Numerous plastic surgery procedures involve tucks and lifts to achieve their effects. While many intraoperative techniques are done to tighten and support lifted tissues, no such result is permanent. Tissue relaxation and stretching and the effects of gravity work almost from the first day after surgery to undue some of the achieved result.
While tissues may be tightened and reinforced, their inherent lack of thickness or structural weakness may not provide optimal support. This is where the role of an implantable mesh material has always been appealing. But the use of traditional polymer meshes when placed right under the skin have a long history of potential complications, most notably palpability, thinning of the overlying tissues and even extrusions.
An appealing reinforcing mesh would be one composed of a resorbable material. This is the role that allogeneic meshes have filled, such as Alloderm and Strattice, which provide a dense collagen material which is fabricated from donor tissues. While very effective, its costs are considerable particularly in bigger pieces.
GalaFLEX mesh composed of a resorbable material that has FDA approval to reinforce soft tissue where weaknesses exist or for use in procedures involving soft tissue repair or other fascial defects that require the addition of a material support to obtain the desired result. Uses in aesthetic plastic surgery could include facelifts, necklifts, browlifts, breast lifts and breast reductions.
GalaFLEX is a flat knitted elastic mesh composed of poly-4-hydroxybutyrate (P4HB) which is from a class of materials known as poly-4-hydroxybutyrate that are produced naturally by bacteria in a recombinant fermentation process. It is a resorbable material that is broken down by water absorption and eliminated from the body as carbon dioxide and water in 12 to 18 months after implantation.
GalaFLEX mesh is of particular interest to plastic surgeons in breast surgery as an inferior pole sling support. Bottoming out of the breasts after breast lifts and reductions is a common aesthetic problem after these surgeries.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana