Robert Whitfield MD tested nearly 600 explanted breast implants and found bacteria in 29%, mostly Cutibacterium acnes and Staphylococcus epidermidis. Research shows Staph epidermidis reacts with breast fatty acids to produce 10-HOME, a compound linked to immune activation and symptoms of breast implant illness, though no clinical test exists yet.
Questions this video answers
29% of almost 600 consecutive explant specimens.
Cutibacterium acnes and Staphylococcus epidermidis.
Dr. Muthoon Sina (Indiana University Medical Center).
I've done several thousand explants, and the series we published on PCR testing of explant specimens to look at the problem, to see if it's bacteria, see if it's fungus or mold or is it mycobacterium. And predominantly, overwhelmingly, it's bacteria.
Inside the implant. Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that because I've heard some people like, oh, yeah, they opened it up and there was mold and all this stuff in there. But then you hear, well, no, it's not permeable, so that's not possible. So what's the truth there?
I published a paper just to just put that to rest because it's not a thing and I don't want people. But in general, we published the paper to show that in 29% of almost 600 consecutive explant specimens, it's bacteria, and it's particularly cutibacterium acnes and staph epidermidis. Now, that's important because another paper published last year by Dr. Muthoon Sina, wonderful scientist at Indiana University Medical center, published a paper showing that that bacterial interaction from the staph epidermatist, it interacts with the fat, say the fatty acid, oleic acid, in the breast tissue. It used to be thought that the shell was basically impervious. Right. You know, the scar tissue didn't allow anything to happen. That's not true. So you can have interaction between the bacteria that stuck inside and then the breast tissue and that interaction. You know, we've talked a little bit and we said oxidative stress. So it causes an oxidative reaction, and that creates something called oxylipin 10 home. So that can be tracked in breast implant illness. Patient's blood in this research study that he published, and it's higher, and it contributes to problems with macrophages, and that's where you get the immune system activation. And that leads to many of the chronic symptoms that we see. So think of like joint and muscle pain, something like that. And so, you know, I've. I've tried to introduce that scientist to laboratory companies to help get a test, but there's no test right now. That was done in research, but it helps explain that. Okay. We have my study and others that say there's bacterial contamination on these. We found it on explant and mine because it's such a large series. I just. I say it's 29% because it's in a big number, almost 600. And then you look at his study that found Oxylipin 10 home. So this is a biomarker now?
