Bacteria in Breast Implants: The Hidden Infection Crisis

Hey everyone, it's Dr. Whitfield. I wanted to go over our recently published paper, Clinical Evaluation of Microbial Communities and Associated Biofilms with Breast Augmentation Failure. I'm the lead author. Then we also have Craig Tipton, Nicole Diaz, Jacob Aguirre, and Dr. Kyle Landry. So here is the paper and I get asked frequently, why do I think breast implant illness and explant surgery pose such a significant health concern to women? And this is why we evaluated through PCR testing. So everybody remembers from the pandemic, the antigen test versus the PCR test. PCR tests look at DNA fragments. What we did is we transitioned from routine testing to PCR testing in 2019. All of our samples after February 2019 were tested through PCR analysis using the Next Gen sequencing from MicroGen DX in Lubbock, Texas. And what that reveals is all of these different. Now bacteria, Mycobacterium and fungus can be evaluated more effectively because the smallest amount can be detected through a DNA fragment analysis. Here. This graph shows the example of what we found most frequently, which is Cudibacterium acnis. You can see it right here. And then also Staphylococcus epidermidis. That will become extremely important in future papers that we discuss now as we move through the results into the discussion. The results show, as I really have discussed in the past, in this series of samples of over 600, there's about a 29% rate of finding this bacterial contaminant. And then when I discuss with patients all the time, I keep it very simple. And the results obviously will vary over time with this, the number of samples that we collect. So I always say about a third of the cases I will find typically a bacterial contaminant. Typically in our experience, which is more of a nationwide experience, as well as accepting patients from Europe and Asia, that those will typically show Cudibacterium acnes. But you also see that Staph epidermidis is right there. Now why are these two so important? They both readily produce biofilm. So the bacteria aggregate or come together and form communities which create this protective layer, the biofilm. This can interact with your tissues. And so it's the interaction with these tissues that I've always considered to be the most important because it's like having a prodromal phase or a low grade infection. And that can basically stimulate your immune system and keep it turned on. So why is that important? So I think there would be very little difficulty in understanding breast implant illness if everybody showed up and had A red swollen breast, they would say, oh, my gosh, that's infected. We should remove that. But however, our body is helping, try to surveil it. So it identifies the bacteria that's located on the surface of the device. The device can't be clearing the bacterial components that are attached to it because it's not alive. It's dead. So hip, knee, breast implant, dental implant, cardiac implant, neurologic implant, orthopedic implants, they're not alive. They don't have a blood supply, so you cannot rid them of bacterial contamination. And so this constant signaling to your body, your body knows something's wrong, it's reacting, and it creates more of an immune response. And we'll go on and discuss further in other videos. And you can go to my channel just by searching my name on Google, Dr. Robert Whitfield at YouTube, and learn both my patient stories and our experience with some of the fundamental symptoms associated with breast implant illness and how we've tried to, you know, really provide solutions to the problems of breast implant illness. So in summary of this paper, bacteria found in approximately 29% of the implants I removed. I believe these patients are having symptoms due to the biofilm. And the interaction with the biofilm and the breast tissue is going to be a subject of a next video that I do. And it's these fatty acids interact with the biofilm in the breast tissue that produces a substance called oxy lipin tenhome. And that is going to be what contributes to more and more symptoms. All right, so if you like this video, please subscribe to our channel. If you want to learn more about how to lower inflammation, please click on the links on my YouTube channel. We have an inflammation support bundle that's curated based on the genetics of our patients to help lower inflammation. That's what I recommend everybody start with. And then if you're interested in learning more about participating in either our detox program, which runs remote, or coming to Austin, please contact us through the YouTube channel or through my website, drrobertwitfield.com all right.