Side effects of breast augmentation -What is capsular contracture?

Many people around the globe are interested about breast augmentation and breast augmentation is one area that a lot of people are researching on in the medical field.

So there are fast developments in this area and the doctors seem difficult to catch up with all the new information and research if they are not interested.

In US, there are about 400,000 implants used in a year. This is comparably different from Korea where we use about 50,000 implants a year.
Also most of the data on the side effects come from US. Today, I would like to use this data to share some information. (There aren’t much data in Korea)

Patient with breast augmentation side effect (Source: MBC)

 
This might be out of line, but let’s compared the airplane accident rate to breast augmentation side effect rate.

According to IATA, the accident rate of planes manufacture in the western countries was 0.71%. This means that there was 1 accident in every 1.4 million flights. Those people who died on flights are 685 (Yunhap News)  

 
A plane with 0.71% of accident rate, is it safe to ride on it?
This depends on each individual who knows about this rate. I usually use the planes, but there must be some who do not use the planes because they think that it is not safe.

I will ride the plane. I will not. As you know about the safety and decide on whether you would ride the plane or not, one must be aware of the incidence rate of capsular contracture, implant collapse, etc related to breast augmentation and decide on whether you would need breast augmentation or not.

Breast surgery Korea KIES-U

 
MFDS has data that says that there were about 98 cases of capsular contracture last year. But this number does not have any meaning to the patients and even the doctors.

Epidermis is formed naturally on anyone, but the real problem is when this squeezes. We are interested about what number of capsular contracture leads to reconstruction, what type of implant was used, how many implants were used, and what manufacturers made these implants. However, these type of data do not exist right now.

What is capsular contracture?

This is a term that many patients know and one that a lot of doctors use as well. However, capsular contracture is not an appropriate term to use.

An exact expression would be epithelium contracture. If an outer substance enters our body, our metabolism system forms a wall around this substance. We call this wall, capsule.

The capsule takes a few weeks to be formed. The wall is formed and grown, squeezing the substance but this is different from one person to another.

If it is tightly squeezed, much pressure is formed on the implant making the implant as strong as a stone or it can even change the shape of the implant casing discomfort.
We call this capsular contracture. Capsular contracture is similar to healing of a wound. All mammals including human have scar when there is a wound. This scar can be big or small on a person. As for a scar from a surgery, the scar would depend on how the doctor performs on the surgery.

Capsule formation is normal on the body, ‘but the problem exists when there is much pressure on it.  However, this cannot be known before the surgery.
If the capsule becomes very tight at the bottom of the breasts, the implants would be pushed upwards and the upper breasts would stick outwards.
 

Breast surgery Korea KIES-U

If the capsule is very tight on the insider, the implant would be pushed outwards and the breasts would look far apart.

If the capsule is tight from all sides, the implant would become as hard as a stone. If the tightness comes all around the breast, and changes the shape of the implant, we call this capsular contracture. The 98 cases announced from the MFDS can and cannot be this type of capsular contracture.


In the next posting I will continue writing about the 'incidence rate of capsular contracture'.
Thank you