Dr. Robert Whitfield explains why removing the implant capsule intact during breast explant surgery matters: about one-third of his patients have biofilm, and some developed breast cancer or lymphoma. He details how he combines explant with lift and fat transfer for better results.
We have about a third of our patients have biofilm, so we want to take all the material out intact each time, if at all possible. Today we're going to talk about breast lifts and how they relate to explant surgeries that we do. We get a lot of questions that ask me, do I actually take the areolar nipple complex actually off and then put it back on? So for everybody listening, I think when we do simultaneous explant lift, fat transfers, any of those combinations, we're really trying to execute a series of steps so that we get really more balance. And so those can be difficult variables, because when you're trying to execute basically an explant, you're doing a reduction here. Instead of breast tissue reducing the actual breast form by removing the implant, we remove the capsular material as well. We've had a handful of patients have breast cancer, lymphoma. We have about a third of our patients have biofilm. So we want to take all the material out intact each time, if at all possible. That helps protect the patients from biofilm that can be spread throughout the pocket or cancers.
