I had breast augmentation 4 weeks ago and found out my surgeon used textured implants. I was under the assumption he was going to use smooth implants due to the risk of bia-alcl, however did not confirm this. I am now full of anxiety relating to the textured implants and am wanting to get these removed and replaced with smooth implants, how long should I wait before getting this done?
Ask your surgeon. No one I know in the US uses textured breast implants in cosmetic cases.
Ask your surgeon for the implants cards, or a copy of the operative report. dont be anxious , most of the cases reported with the textured implants happened many years after surgery, so do some facts finding and then if they were textured, find what company made them, not all textured implants are the same. i will be able to help you better once you find more facts. good luck.
The FDA does not recommend replacement of textured implants in asymptomatic women as the risk of developing ALCL is very low. The macro textured implants that were most commonly present in woman with ALCL were withdrawn from the market by the manufacturer several years ago. That said, if replacing the your implants is needed to permit you to sleep at night, you can have them removed at any time.
The risk is very low. All of these questions you need to discuss with your surgeon.
It is unfortunate that you received breast implants that you were not expecting to receive. The moral of your story is 'never assume anything,' especially when it comes to your health. I'm not sure how things work in the UK, but here in the US the FDA requires that plastic surgeons review with their breast augmentation patients a Patient Decision Aid, which is a document that discusses just about every aspect of breast augmentation surgery, including breast implant types and bia-alcl, and provides checklists for your choices. I'm also not sure how it works there with accessibility to your surgeon. You need to have a frank conversation with him about your concerns about bia-alcl and how and why he chose textured implants. There are certain occasions where they are still used in my practice. If used, only microtextured implants are available, which carry an estimated incidence of bia-alcl of 1 in 80,000. So perhaps finding out the type of texture can ease some of your anxiety.
In the United States it is rare for anyone to use textured implants if these are being used at all. I would discuss with your surgeon exactly why textured implants were used and please obtain implant cards as well as the operative report to see exactly what type of implants were used.