Before and after bilateral explantation in a 35 year old woman. She felt uncomfortable with her implants that were placed under the muscle; she felt they no longer suited her body at this stage in her life.
Breast implant removal does not always require general anesthesia, a 3-4 hour surgery and drains. When the implant is intact (not ruptured) and there is little scar tissue around the implant (no major capsular contracture), the implant can simply be removed and the surrounding scar tissue fades away – this is analogous to a callus on a hand or a foot if rubbing against the skin stops – the skin returns to normal soft skin.
“Total capsulectomy” is required if the capsule is infected or extremely thick (think of a grapefruit rind). “En bloc capsulectomy” refers to removing the entire breast implant capsule and implant as a whole, without opening the capsule to remove the implant. This is rarely required and only indicated if there is rupture of an older generation silicone implant and it cannot be removed simply without removal of the entire surround scar tissue capsule.
Given that she did not have capsular contracture and there was no history of infection, capsulectomy was not required. Her implants were removed in the office under local anesthesia, using her existing scar in the fold under her breasts.
Follow up photos are shown 6 weeks after surgery. She is much happier and comfortable exercising and wearing fitted tops, and thrilled that she didn’t need to go to sleep for surgery.
*All photos are actual patient photographs and are for illustrative purposes only. Individual results may vary.
