Breast Augmentation Deflations and Ruptures
Oh, how you long to experience the thrill of new breast implants and the new look that comes with it! The admiring glances would certainly do wonders to your self-confidence and enhance your self worth too. However, despite all the adulations, you’d do well to remember that breast implants don’t last a lifetime. Read on to know why.
Reasons for rupture or deflation
Breast implant rupture or deflation can occur due to various reasons, but not all are well understood. Some possible causes can be:
- Handling during surgery: Some handling of the breast implant during surgery is, of course, necessary, like while placing it under the breast or manipulating it under the muscle. However, a rough handling is likely to result in rupture.
- Placement: Subglandular, rather than submuscular, placement of the implant makes it more susceptible to rupture and deflation. One particular technique, called the belly button or umbilical incision, is fraught with risk because it involves too much handling of the implant.
- Damage by surgical instruments: Insertion of breast implant requires the use of surgical instruments, which at times may cut or damage the implant through surgeon’s carelessness, leading to rupture.
- Overfilling or under filling: This is relevant for saline-filled breast implants. Overfilled or under filled implant is more prone to rupture and deflation.
- Stresses and pressures: If the implant undergoes trauma, injury or intense physical pressure there’s a likelihood of its rupturing or deflating.
- Damage during procedures: Mistakes in certain surgical procedures, performed in the region of the chest, like biopsies and fluid drainage, can also damage the implant.
- Extreme compression: In mammography, the breast may be compressed more than usual while taking a mammogram, resulting in its rupture or deflation.
- Capsular contracture: The scar tissue that lines the implant on healing may contract and tighten due to various reasons, putting intense pressure on the implants, resulting in rupture or deflation.
- Normal aging:Like all materials, breast implant too has an expiry date, after which, it may become weak and susceptible to rupture or deflation.
However, there may be some other unexplained reasons too for rupture or deflation.
Symptoms of breast implant rupture
In silicone gel implant rupture, the breast may decrease in size or the breasts may show an uneven appearance. You may even feel some hard knots within the breast accompanied by pain or tenderness, swelling, tingling, burning, numbness or changes in sensation. However, in certain cases, the rupture may be without any symptoms, known as silent rupture.
In saline breast implant rupture, the saline solution leaks either through an unsealed or damaged valve or through a break in the implant shell. The symptoms are loss of size or shape of the implant or complete deflation.
Dealing with rupture and deflation
In saline breast implant problem, the breast may either get deflated immediately or gradually after several days, months or even years, depending upon the severity of the leak. The leaked salt water is generally absorbed by the body. This condition usually requires breast implant replacement.
In silicone breast implant problem, Magnetic Resonance Imaging or MRI, with equipment specifically designed for imaging the breast, may be used to evaluate the leakage. This is required, since silicone gel may escape from the scar tissue capsule around the implant or migrate away from the breast or cause lumps, called granulomas, in the breast, chest wall, armpit, arm or the abdomen. In this case too, the ruptured implant is removed to prevent the silicone gel from leaking into the body.
So, is there a way in which you can minimize the breast implant risks of rupture and deflation? Well, if a study conducted by the Department of Surgery at Fairfield Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio is any indication, deflation is less likely to occur if the implants are over filled. This way they’ll not fold and lead to rupture and deflation.
