Robert Whitfield MD discusses breast implant complications, noting that implant-associated cancers are rare and mainly tied to textured implants. He mentions one B-cell lymphoma case in his practice and describes how U.S. implant use shifted from saline smooth implants to silicone after 2013. The interviewer counters that breast implant illness happens with any implant type.
Do you notice more problems with the different material that the breast implant is made with? Like, are there more problems with silicone versus saline, et cetera?
So breast implant cancers are a problem. It's a really low incidence. It's. It's mainly in the textured implants. I have one instance of this in my practice where it's not a T cell lymphoma, but it's a B cell lymphoma. So I have seen it. It's really unfortunate. I would like to say that I know for sure who has textured and who has saline is going to have these different outcomes, but I don't, because I see so many people. And saline smooth implants were used predominantly in our country from 1996 until 2013, when a new kind of silicone implant was brought back to market, and then the other implants are brought back to market as well. So I've seen all of them.
Yeah, all of them have caused problems. People get breast implant illness no matter what kind of implant.
Yeah, there's not. There's not an easy to indict, you know, situation here. It's just. It's a foreign body and, you know, whether it's, you know, your dental implant or your cardiac implant or. I used to help all the orthopedic surgeons. Anybody can get infection from an implant place, but many times they're used for really functional purposes, like reconstructing someone's jaw for cancer or replacing a knee joint for osteoarthritis or cancer. I mean, there are all sorts of things that have to be done in the name of keeping someone mobile or able to eat.
