Removing the breast implant [KIES-U Plastic surgery Korea]
Q. Can I have my breast implants removed? What side effects can there be if I remove the implants?
A. There is no implant that you cannot remove. There is not much side effect after removing the implants. But there may be some change in the breast cell structure.
There are many news regarding silicone implants today, therefore there are many with such questions.
I will avoid the scientific truth, mistakes, problems in expression of these news and just focus on the theme itself.
Artificial hand or leg, facial implant, artificial breast implant, and etc. There is a reason why silicone are used a lot for medical purposes around the world.
The first reasons is that it is most similar to the body.
Second, it can be produced in any shapes.
Third, it is cheap and easily acquired.
Fourth, it is chemically stable and there is not much problem when used in the body.
Fifth, it does not degenerate or decay.
Sixth, it can be removed at any time easily.
“It can be removed at any time easily” is a great advantage. Silicone doesn't stick to the surrounding tissue. You might ask “doesn’t textured implant stick to the fat?” The textured implant interacting with the fact is more like velcro effect. It is not like rice cake sticking to one another.
If you do not separate the gore tex, it will tear off the fat when you try to separate it from the skin. This is a big headache. Some ask if the newly introduced polyurethane does not stick to the skin. Polyurethane implant is silicone implant with polyurethane coating. The coating avoids the formation of the epidermis therefore the contracture. This coating makes the implant stick strongly more than the textured type and makes it even more difficult to separate.
Then how is saline bag type different from silicone type? Saline bag type is consisted of salt water but the bag itself is silicone elastomer. The epidermis is formed around the saline bag and whether the surface is smooth or textured, you can easily separate it.
As such,it is important that silicone be separated with the skin. There are problems such as capsular contracture and seroma but we can always remove the implant if it is a severe case.
Then what are the side effects of removing the silicone implant?
The most important one is the contraction effect.
As the silicone implant positions itself, it gets much pressure the fat at the top and bottom.
Tissue organization also takes time for adjustment. There are differences in the formation of back and arms of modern people who sit behind the desks and those primitive man who ran around a lot. As such, the implant pressures the breast tissue causing the skin layer to become thinner. We call this contraction effect but honestly, I cannot say that it is a side effect. It is more like an adapting effect.
This is why to is correct to say the when you remove the implant (especially the large ones) after a long time of its usage, the breast does not come back to its original state but can get smaller.
There are very rare cases where the patients want to remove the implant when there is no problem. Implant removal is done when there is a severe case of capsular contracture, or implant collapse, shifting of location, double line and other serious shape change in the implant, or opening of the wound after breast cancer surgery or inflammation related to it.
Apart from those problems stated above, the removal of the implant is a solution to other problems. In case of capsular contracture, you would need to remove the implant and then decide on what to do with the epidermis.
Contracture is formed when the epidermis becomes too thick and strong. Usually I do not remove the epidermis completely. The breast contracts by itself so if I remove the epidermis completely, the breast would look even smaller.
Also, it is not easy to remove the epidermis without damaging the surrounding muscle and other tissue cells. There is much bleeding, and it is both time consuming and costly.
Most cases of implant removal are short and simple. General anesthesia is recommended. Implant removal is also a surgery, so there might be some unexpected situation that we need to prepare for.
This is all for today. Thank you for reading.
Q. Can I have my breast implants removed? What side effects can there be if I remove the implants?
A. There is no implant that you cannot remove. There is not much side effect after removing the implants. But there may be some change in the breast cell structure.
There are many news regarding silicone implants today, therefore there are many with such questions.
I will avoid the scientific truth, mistakes, problems in expression of these news and just focus on the theme itself.
Artificial hand or leg, facial implant, artificial breast implant, and etc. There is a reason why silicone are used a lot for medical purposes around the world.
The first reasons is that it is most similar to the body.
Second, it can be produced in any shapes.
Third, it is cheap and easily acquired.
Fourth, it is chemically stable and there is not much problem when used in the body.
Fifth, it does not degenerate or decay.
Sixth, it can be removed at any time easily.
“It can be removed at any time easily” is a great advantage. Silicone doesn't stick to the surrounding tissue. You might ask “doesn’t textured implant stick to the fat?” The textured implant interacting with the fact is more like velcro effect. It is not like rice cake sticking to one another.
If you do not separate the gore tex, it will tear off the fat when you try to separate it from the skin. This is a big headache. Some ask if the newly introduced polyurethane does not stick to the skin. Polyurethane implant is silicone implant with polyurethane coating. The coating avoids the formation of the epidermis therefore the contracture. This coating makes the implant stick strongly more than the textured type and makes it even more difficult to separate.
Then how is saline bag type different from silicone type? Saline bag type is consisted of salt water but the bag itself is silicone elastomer. The epidermis is formed around the saline bag and whether the surface is smooth or textured, you can easily separate it.
As such,it is important that silicone be separated with the skin. There are problems such as capsular contracture and seroma but we can always remove the implant if it is a severe case.
Then what are the side effects of removing the silicone implant?
The most important one is the contraction effect.
As the silicone implant positions itself, it gets much pressure the fat at the top and bottom.
Tissue organization also takes time for adjustment. There are differences in the formation of back and arms of modern people who sit behind the desks and those primitive man who ran around a lot. As such, the implant pressures the breast tissue causing the skin layer to become thinner. We call this contraction effect but honestly, I cannot say that it is a side effect. It is more like an adapting effect.
This is why to is correct to say the when you remove the implant (especially the large ones) after a long time of its usage, the breast does not come back to its original state but can get smaller.
There are very rare cases where the patients want to remove the implant when there is no problem. Implant removal is done when there is a severe case of capsular contracture, or implant collapse, shifting of location, double line and other serious shape change in the implant, or opening of the wound after breast cancer surgery or inflammation related to it.
Apart from those problems stated above, the removal of the implant is a solution to other problems. In case of capsular contracture, you would need to remove the implant and then decide on what to do with the epidermis.
Contracture is formed when the epidermis becomes too thick and strong. Usually I do not remove the epidermis completely. The breast contracts by itself so if I remove the epidermis completely, the breast would look even smaller.
Also, it is not easy to remove the epidermis without damaging the surrounding muscle and other tissue cells. There is much bleeding, and it is both time consuming and costly.
Most cases of implant removal are short and simple. General anesthesia is recommended. Implant removal is also a surgery, so there might be some unexpected situation that we need to prepare for.
This is all for today. Thank you for reading.
