Some characteristics of microtextured implants

Hello everyone. Today I would like to share about the characteristics of microtextured implant along with its advantages and disadvantages.

1) What is microtextured implant?

Texturing in implant is uneven surface where the skin cell can grow into. The purpose of texturing is to avoid capsular contracture. As the tissue cells grow into the surface without any uniformity, we can avoid the development of strong and tough capsule.

The only surface that truly avoids the capsular contracture is the polyurethane. Silicone texture was made in order to do what polyurethane can achieve. You can see this in the image below.



This is an endoscope image of polyurethane structure that is complex and maze looking like. The body has its tissue cells grow into the spacing in the structure. No matter how good the texturing is on the silicone implant, it cannot be as effective as the polyurethane when the tissue cells grow. The silicone texturing has some level of smoothness therefore there is a limit to how much the tissue cell can grow into and ending up with just sticking effect.

The most representative texture surfaced implant is Allergan’s Biocell. It has the roughest surface and the depth of the texture is few hundred micrometer making the tissue cells grow into it. Other companies applied other methods in making the texturing. Mentor made Siltex texturing product but it has less rough and smoother surface compared to Biocell.

But European companies made smaller textured products. The sales were not good and they were not popular. French companies such as Sebbin, Nagor, and EuroSilicone continued to make such products. These companies made products with texturing that is 2 digit micrometer which is not comparable to Allergan or Mentor’s products.

It is difficult to make out if there are any texturing on products from Motiva and Arion. Such products rather have smooth surface instead.

Reference : SEBBIN homepage

2) Why was microtextured implant produced?

As stated in Sebbin website, the microtextured product causes less friction when inserted into the pocket. It also was produced to avoid any scar making activity and to minimize the incidence rate of capsular contracture.
But such marketing and production does not take place in France. Microtextured products are not popular in US or Europe.

There has been much variety of implant products and new products have been launched in the market for a long time. From all those new products, only 1/10 had much success in the long run. Then can microtextured implant stay in the market for a long time?

Nobody knows that answer to this question yet. We need to wait few more years in order to know this. The history of implant is very long and interesting. Once the implant gets inserted into the body, it remains in the body for a long time. When there is a class action lawsuit, the manufacturer can go out of business instantly. This is why the manufacturers focus more on safety rather than innovation.

The opposite of microtextured implant is macrotextured. It is a silicone implant with surface that has characteristics similar to that of polyurethane. Polyurethane is the only type that has success in avoiding capsular contracture, therefore macrotextured copied this concept. But as time passed, many problems started to arise.
 


World known breast augmentation specialist, Dr. Elizabeth Findlay found problems of double capsule and seroma. The largest company in the world with macrotextured implants is Allergan and this company suffered much damage. Many researchers supported by Allergan published critics to what Dr. Findlay discovered.

As times passed, Dr. Findlay’s findings did not suffer any weakness but gained more momentum with other findings that followed. There were many Me too! Me too! findings. The finding that macrotextured implant resulting in double capsule and late seroma became more firm and solid.

Also, recently there were findings that macrotextured implants were related to severe case of lymphoma. Smooth type implants gained more popularity in US and many questions on texturing products arise in EU. Microtextured products do not have much texturing therefore, are much close to the smooth type implant. With many critics focused on texturing implant, maybe there is a chance for microtextured product to gain some spot light.



3) Advantages and Disadvantages

The advantages are that it can be inserted easily, feels good when you touch it and that there is no disturbance on the skin.

We still need about 10 years to know if it causes capsular contracture less or more. There are not much sufficient data yet. Tissue cells not growing into the surface means that the implant cannot stick to the skin. There is not much difference compared to the smooth type implant in such regard. What is the collapse rate of microtextured implant? We do not have much data on this as well.

4) Then for what cases is the microtexture implant good?

I recommend form stable (round or anatomical) implant to those patients who gave birth, lost skin elasticity, or need to fill up the upper volume.
I recommend smooth round type implant to those patients who are young with tight skin and want soft feeling on the breasts.
I think that microtextured implant could be recommended for the latter as well. There is not much difference in the surfaces of the smooth round type implant and microtextured implant.

Also, the microtextured implants introduced in Korea have much viscoelasticity. So when you touch the augmented breast, there is that more feeling of stickiness which many patients prefer. But such viscoelasticity does not help avoid rippling or enhance form stability. There is no data that state viscoelasticity helps provide better feeling in the long term.

In conclusion, microtextured implants require much research in the future. When data are gathered along with many clinical testing from the doctors, we can provide you with more accurate findings.

This is all for today, thank you for reading.


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