Robert Whitfield MD and another speaker discuss informed consent for breast implants, emphasizing that surgeons must inform patients about breast implant illness per FDA guidance. Patients with implant-related symptoms are often dismissed or misdiagnosed and may benefit from explantation.
I'm all about having patients make an informed decision and understanding the risks, the long term risks of getting implants, including breast implant illness. And you know, doing our job as plastic surgeons like is required by the FDA to talk about breast implant illness so that in my opinion, patients, if they do develop symptoms months, years down the road, they know at least to get treated, to see a plastic surgeon to potentially get their device out. You know, what really is unfair to the patients is when they're walking around with breast implants, they're, they're sick, they've got breast implant illness and they're being gaslit and dismissed and put into other categories of chronic inflammatory conditions and being treated with medications and other therapies and really all they need is to get their implants out.
I feel like when folks come in now and I still get the, oh, I went and saw my plastic surgeon and they said breast implant illness was actually not real thing.
Right.
And I was like, well that's not exactly true. When I was in, you know, the plastic surgery organizations, I was the co chair of the task force for the FDA meetings on breast implants. And then I gave testimony and then when I came president of the research foundation, one of those societies, I said we would provide, you know, resources to, to do studies. Patients have to be like, hey, I feel this way and be very clear on the history and then the providers like you should as a provider, if you're listening to this, you need to be aware of any device, IUDs, neurologic devices, nor plant, any, any adjuvant to.
What you said earlier about Asia.
Everything can cause a problem, right?
Right.
So you better be doing, if you have a patient with chronic inflammatory symptoms, a very, very strong inventory of what surgery is that people forget they've even had surgery.
