American Society of Plastic Surgeons
For Medical Professionals
 
Broken breast implants
4 years ago
Answered

I dev. NF Nec. Fasciitis...gel..implants are broken.

I am on the mend from NF Necrotizing Fasciitis but, my gel implants are broken and, on pet/ct they are necrotized. Can you get these out and replace these?

Procedure: Breast Implant Revision
Location: Virginia Beach, VA

Replies 6

Gary Culbertson
ASPS Surgeon
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You are dealing with two entirely different issues. Necrotizing Fasciitis can be a life threatening disease process. Please get this condition under control/ healed BEFORE you consider any corrective breast implant surgery. Best,

Gary R Culbertson, MD, FACS

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Michael Streitmann
ASPS Surgeon

It is best to mend from your NF and once healed then you can proceed with the implant issue.

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Matthew Camp
ASPS Surgeon

Gel implants are not tissue, and therefore cannot undergo necrosis. If you have necrotic tissue around the implant, you should have the the implants and dead tissue removed. After this, you could then have reconstruction.

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Nelson Castillo

Thank you for sharing your question and I am sorry to hear of your NF development, but thankfully you came out on the right side of this aggressive infection. As for now I would not recommend any treatment other than that which allows clearance of any residual infection - this may mean implant removal and any infected tissue, but no attempt at reconstruction or aesthetic repair should be pursued for now.

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Curtis Wong
ASPS Surgeon

Ruptured gel implants will not harm you so you have time to fully recover from your NF. But when recovered, yes, you can have your implants changed out and replaced if you did not lose a lot of breast tissue from your NF. Otherwise you may be looking at a reconstruction if you are tissue deficient on your chest. Best wishes to recovering completely.

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Victor Samano
ASPS Int. Surgeon

A rupture of the gel implant do not represent a life threatening for you. Regarding then Necrotizing Fasciitis you present, It is mandatory that you get that infection under control and healed before a removal of implant procedure be done.

Now days, all the implants should have a guarantee for rupture, you may ask your surgeon so you can apply this guarantee to get the new implant in the future when you be healed,

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