Short YouTube transcript (conversation) about breast implant explantation. Speakers discuss clinical decision to remove implants and emphasize removing both the implant and the surrounding capsule intact because the capsule harbors biofilm and potential contamination; removing the implant alone may leave residual contamination.
Now, if you suspect that somebody's symptoms are due to their implants, and you've ruled out everything else and you've determined with the patient that an explant is the. Is the right course of action to take, are you removing just the implant or the implant as well as the capsule?
Yeah. So we take everything out, and we're trying to do it intact. So I tell everybody I'm trying to take everything out like an undisturbed Easter egg. Because the capsule, the patient's scar that they create around the implant is what I've biopsied thousands of times, and that's where the biofilm lies. So it's inside that capsular surface up against the implant. So I want all that to come out because I wouldn't want to leave an infected scar capsule in. So if someone takes out an implant under local anesthesia in their office.
I.
Think, based on our discussion, do you think the biofilm is gone or do you think the biofilm can still be in the patient?
It's. If you take out just the implant, yeah, I would assume that it's likely that there's still some degree of contamination.
So I get patients all the time from all over the country sending me messages that they still have symptoms and all they had was implant removal because they said, here are the. The standard things. So you can't ever tell a family member or a patient that you didn't see anything. Like, I will always tell folks, like, we can't see the bacteria. We're going to send it off, we're going to get it tested for, and then we're going to make sure that the pathologist looks at everything, because breast cancer is still the most prevalent cancer you're going to find. And then all the testing comes back at different intervals and is in their chart so they know exactly what was done and what was there.
