Episode 135: The Conversation About Breast Implants Every Woman Needs to Hear, with Dr. Alan Gonzalez

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Dr. Rob Whitfield, the board certified plastic surgeon specializing in explant surgery. Breast implant illness is a topic that is not often talked enough about, especially in medical community, but is something that affects many women. In this podcast I'll be discussing the latest research, treatment options and personal stories of women who have undergone explant surgery in an effort to heal breast implant illness. In this podcast, we'll explore the symptoms of breast implant illness and delve into the latest surgical techniques for explantation and the recovery process. Whether you are currently experiencing breast implant illness or are considering explant surgery, this podcast is a valuable resource for anyone looking to take control of their health and wellness. So let's dive in. I have a special guest on the show, Dr. Alan Gonzalez, who is a leading plastic surgeon in Colombia and Latin America with 25 years of experience performing over 20,000 aesthetic and reconstruction procedures. Renowned for pioneering cutting edge techniques, he prioritizes natural results with novel scarring and swift recovery. A dedicated educator, he advises major media outlets and speaks at global conferences, blending his expertise with a vision of beauty and well being. His current research focuses on the link between Asia syndrome and breast implants, collaborating with multidisciplinary teams. A member of prestigious societies, ISAPs, ASAPs, FACs, he also serves as scientific director of Care Me 360 Institute. Welcome to the show today, Dr. Alan Gonzalez. I have a special guest today, Dr. Alan Gonzalez from Columbia, who happens to be in New York and he's taken time out of his schedule to speak with us today. He has a long history with aesthetic surgery, reconstructive surgery, and he's really put forth over the last six years quite a bit of effort in education of patients and plastic surgeons regarding breast implant illness, probably explant surgery as well. And so welcome to the show, Dr. Gonzalez.

Oh, Dr. Whitfield, thanks for inviting me for this very important program and I think it's a very good opportunity to talk about what happened in Colombia with the plastic surgery, how I can feel these devices and the results for the patients during the time. And I think it's very important for the people understand what happened in this moment with the implants, with the heldness of the people.

Right. I think we were talking a little bit offline about training and I'll chime in on how I got involved in this. I mean I was doing microsurgery and doing D flap reconstruction for breast cancer patients and then like you would imagine, I have patients referred to me that had device problems. So capture contracture, radiation, injured tissues they would have problems with scarring in. And I'm sure you experienced this mechanical problems where they couldn't breathe as well or they had difficulty with pain just from scarring. So I would take all the scar tissue and device out and do an autologous reconstruction, use the patient's own tissue. And of course that works to one restore blood flow to the area. I mean principally that's how I always thought about it. So whether it was radiation injury or a device related scarring phenomenon. And it was always nice to do an autologous transplant of tissue, revascularize the area. And those patients uniformly did better, as you would imagine. And that was my introduction to implant problems. I did not characterize anything as breast implant illness back then. I just knew some patients had responses that I couldn't explain. It made sense to me that some people were sensitive to the devices. Of course that makes sense because some people can't even wear certain types of earrings. So you know, everybody's got different sensitivity patterns. You know, fast forward now you've spent the last six years. You know, I kind of became more problem where in 2016 from a cancer patient. But nonetheless doesn't matter how long we've been doing this. We all both you and I now recognize the problems associated with this and the chronic inflammatory inflammatory symptoms, the poly autoimmunity problems that patients face. The the different challenges they face. So maybe describe to the audience, you know, when you became problem aware of this and then started working on it because you're curious about the problem. Just like Kaya.

Yes. Well, amplus from 25 years ago I studied medicine in Bogota in Colombia is the capital of Colombia. And then I made my studies in plastic surgery in Cuba. Okay. In 2000 I returned to Colombia and all the time Colombia during my practice in these 25 years in the first time say okay, the implants is the perfect solution for the breast surgery. For everybody knows the breast is the one of the most important parts in the women's because it depends everything. The auto perception and the mirror, the sexuality, the clothes, everything she thinks about it. And during this life has many, many changes. And all of us know is the one of the most important surgeries in plastic surgery. With the lipo is the number one procedures. And during my practice I put implants for 1800 patients in 22 years. But always I think okay, it's biocompatible. My patients never will have any problem. But and they say hey, don't worry doctor, it is perfect for the patients. You don't have Any problem, the patient have the wellness always perfect. But when described the anaplastic lymphoma and when described the squamocellular cancer, I said, hey, no, it's not safe here. We have a problem. And I start to study the problem and understand about the immunological problem. And I start to understand the chronic inflammation. And I start to see the patients with many, many problems, but they don't know what happened. Many symptoms, many situations. You say, okay, yes, the contracture. We see many patients, almost, I think almost 70 to 80% patients has contract capsular contracture. And they say, okay, I feel pain, my shape change, I don't feel good. Okay, come on, we replace the implants. Always we think about that. But in this new reality, we know about the immunological response, we know about about the chronic inflammation, we know about the relation with the symptoms. We start to say, okay, now, come on, take it out the implants. But everybody has afraid about the results. Oh, no, you will see like a man, you will see with the very big deformities. No, don't do this, please. And I say, no, it's not real. We can make it. And we, at the same time, we can make a reconstruction of the breast. And the patient can feel safe after the surgery. Because everybody thinks, oh, reconstruction deformity. I say to my patient, now, aesthetic surgeon, you have a dream and you go to the doctor and he made the dream for you. But in reconstruction, you have a problem, you go to the doctor and the doctor made the best work for you. And you have the less scar, the less problem in the future. And in this kind of surgery, it's very important for our patients understand this is a very big possibility to recovery, the wellness. Because many patients are very happy, are very happy with the volume. And when I talk with them, they say, doctor, I feel safe with the volume. It doesn't matter about the shape. I put my bra and I feel perfect. But after the surgery, they say, no, doctor, I was wrong, really, I feel safe with the shape and doesn't matter the volume. I feel very good. And I say to my colleagues, I say, hey, what happened? Come to the past, not to the problem. The past. All the breast surges are without implants. Now all the surgeries is with implants. I think it's not necessarily the implants for all, all the breast surgeries, in mastopexy, in breast reduction, in reconstruction, in breast augmentation, all the topics, I think it's not necessary. And patients say, oh, perfect business for the doctors. First put and Then make the splantation. I say no, it's not the business. This is our profession. We think about the wellness of the people. And we don't know what happened with the implants years ago. Now we know. And in the past three years I never put any implants for my patients. And in the future never we use the implants and I start to make a very important education for the patient. And I think doctor, this is a new problem. This is a new situation. Everybody say, hey, the. The scientific articles and the scientific publications, you can say that. I say, no, this is a new problem. It's necessary. We understand have a big data and start to make our own publications to for all the community. That's it. I think is very, very, very beautiful situation because we can help many people. Millions of women's has implants. I say almost 50 million around the world has implants. Last year, 2 millions of people. I think it's a very big problem like a pandemia because we have many patients very happy, but with symptoms. They don't know what happened and they lose day by day the wellness. And it's very important to understand for all the people I think is not good people and bad people. Good people. You don't use implants. Bad people. You use implant. Now it's real. You can choice. But the most important thing is you know what happened if you use implant. Yeah.

I want to go back to something you said in particular about capture contracture. Because I was reviewing a paper and I was very interested in. And maybe you can discuss in your training how it was explained. But I trained in plastic surgery from 02 to 04 and in surgery from 96 to 02. And a lot of things changed during that time. Laparoscopy came into the standard of care. Lumpectomy and sentinel lymph node came became the standard of care for breast surgery. We no longer did modified radicals. That all happened kind of as I was training. And it was just assumed that you were going to put a device behind the muscle. And I was reading a historical paper and it was reviewing 20 years of breast augmentation from 1962, when Cronin injured placed the first set of implants in Houston, Texas and kind of recounting what they had gone through. And at that point, to your point, almost 75% of the patients had capture contractures per just studies that were being reported observationally of course. And for everybody listening, that's just an exam where Dr. Gonzales and I feel like the device feels firm. Patient reports their Feelings of tenderness, pain, you know, all these things. And it's very subjective. I think you would agree. I just found it. Okay, so the reason devices got placed behind the muscle was really to avoid capsular contracture. And I don't think, and you may comment on this, it doesn't really avoid capture contracture. It just makes it less obvious to both the patient and the examiner. To me, because many times when I do explants, I find contractures that on exam don't feel that way because there's too much tissue between the examiner's hands and the device and its scar tissue capsule. Because it just struck me when I read the paper, I'm like, oh, okay, that makes a lot of sense. Because when I take these things out, many times it's a struggle. Not because it's hard for me to do, but because the thing is so tightly wrapped around the device. And I'm sure you probably will say the same thing. Thickness of capsules is not really so much the sine quinon in this. I mean, it can be tight and be really thin versus something that can be, you know, from the 70s and 80s, which is just calcified and hard as a rock. Those are very different problems. But I agree with you, like the capture contracture is a really underappreciated phenomenon because these devices are retropectoral behind the muscle in the majority of the cases done, certainly in the United States by far. And it makes complications, or how do you want to not complications. Like it creates this fear that something's going to happen to the chest when someone like you or I goes to explant the materials. And I mean, my gosh, I mean, I used to replace chest wall for cancer patients. There's nothing about this operation that to me, that's complicated. There's nothing unsafe about the operation. To your point, I'm sure we could all do this operation very easily. And you have cases probably multiple times a week or a month that you say, why did the patient get an implant when they simply could have had a mastopexy or a breast love, and they were told one thing, when in reality it could have been an entirely different procedure with similar results without any device related complication. Because everybody who gets a device, hip, knee, breast, dental, cardiac, neurologic, is susceptible to an infection, whether it's a bacteremia from a uti, a cold, GI problem, skin infection, you know, you're old enough and I'm old enough. I remember listening to mechanical heart valves and hearing the horror stories of people getting endocarditis and dying. So, like, everybody knows these are problems, but I don't think from my perspective, it's dealt with kind of how we would for the heart valve patient, right? Those patients had standing prescriptions. They were taken care of a very specific way by the GI guys or anybody who was going to instrument them because they knew if they made them back to remic, their chance of getting endocarditis and dying was very high. I don't think we do the breast patient look at.

Well, I think the situation is we never understand what the patients feel. And when we put the implants in the plane, okay, sub glandular, facial, submuscular, we don't think about what she can feel after the surgery during the arms movements and the pain of the breast, the pain of the chest pain, dorsal pain, cervical pain. Many pains are mechanicals associated with surgery. But she looks day by day feel normally, normally, but she feel pain. And she said, I'm happy, but I feel pain. Okay, but this is the first problem. It's necessary to understand what we change in the anatomical situation of the chest during the surgery. In this moment. I have experienced like 1500 patients in the last five years. All the patients has a capsular tissue and more than 80% has capsular contraction. Okay, different degrees. And I agree with you, it's very hard for me, only we touch the breast. I say, oh, you are a first degree, second degree. No, when we make the explanation, we know, okay, she has a very big contraction. She has a normal contraction or she doesn't have contraction. What is the problem? I said, for my patients, all the patients, all the patients has immunological response and chronic inflammation. 24, 7. Okay, you don't feel symptoms. Oh, perfect, Congratulations. But maybe you make a normalization of your symptoms. You think, oh, the eating process is, normally I have a headache, normally I have fatigue, normally I don't remember the things. Normally I have a pain in my joints. This is normal in the aging process. I say to my patient, no, this is not normal. The normal situation is you have the wellness during the aging process, but no sickness or symptoms. And this is very important because many patients think with the implants don't have any problem and really is, you have always a problem because you have an immunological response and a chronic inflammation. Well, what happened with the reconstruction? When you make a reconstruction, you say, well, it's a very, very hard surgery because a very big movement of the tissue and we make a very big and very aggressive movements for the tissue, but we can make the Reconstruction with the patient's breast tissue after you take out the implants, what's the problem? You need experience, but the problem, you need to know how to do it. I think breast surgery is one of the most difficult surgeries in plastic surger because we need make a reconstruction in 3D. We need to put the upper pole and the lower pole in the perfect position, the areolar nipple complex in the perfect situation and the less scar possible. This is a very big and very hard surgery. But many people say, oh, no, it's so easy. You just take it out the implant and you can make a capsulectomy or no, no. For all my patients, I think is mandatory to make a total capsulectomy. And I think Dr. Whiffel at the same time is very important to make the differentiation about the total capsulectomy versus unblocked capsulectomy. Because many people say, hey, do you do my capsulectomy unblocked? Dr. I say, no, you don't have anaplastic lymphoma. You don't know, you don't have cancer. Total capsulectomy always. You take out the capsular tissue and you can make included or not included, total capsulectomy included when you have the implant inside of the capsular tissue. But in many patients, in my case, well, I say have a very important bending to the ribs and I prefer first take out the implants under direct vision. I can make this surgery and never has a pneumothorax or something like that. I think. What do you think about this, Dr. Ritzu?

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So that's very firm, very obvious changes. And the patient had pain. And so. But when I started operating and I got onto the capsular tissue, the capsule appeared abnormal. And so for everybody listening, that's not gonna make a lot of sense to you, but for Dr. Gonzalez and I, he knows exactly what I mean. It's not a normal capsule. And if you operated around the cancer environment long enough, you know what I mean? Cancer is. You know it when you see it. And I immediately, I was like, oh, this is gonna come back, and it's gonna be abnormal. And I told my team, I say, told the husband, you know, I took all this out. I'm 100% convinced this is gonna get a call from the. That it's not normal. Now, it's not necessarily ACL, but I don't know what it is. I can just tell you it is not normal. Having done in my career, you know, thousands of sarcomas and head and neck cancers and breast cancers. I mean, it's not normal. So about three, four days went by, and I got the phone call. You know, my office says, hey, the pathologist is on the phone. They want to talk to you. I'm like, okay. So I, you know, I get on the phone and I'm like, yeah, I presume you think this is a lymphoma from a breast implant. And they're like, yeah, but we can't characterize it. It's not stainy the correct way. And so I was like, well, that's great. So, you know, once again, Dr. Gonzalez and I both know, like, when things are abnormal, they're abnormal and they're bothersome to us because we've seen enough over a number of years to know that they're abnormal. And of course, in that setting, I did an on block resection, but it was much easier because, one, it was very firm. And he knows, like I do, when it's firm, it's a little bit easier for us to complete the resection in a way, and move it around and just adjust it to get the best angles and take it off the surfaces without violating the capsule. And that's what I did in this case. And so I was 100% convinced the way it came out, the margins were going to be fine because nothing was extending. There was no extra capsular invasion. There could always be microscopic disease, but this was all contained. So I will tell you what they did with this. I won't tell you who did this, but I got a phone call, and they're like, we're not going to characterize this as a breast implant associated lymphoma. We're going to call it a breast lymphoma. I'm like, it's not in the breast. You know, it's not in the breast, right, because it's inside the capsule up against the implant. So they didn't characterize this as a lymphoma, a device. And I was like, oh, my word. So you're going to really subject a patient to surveillance, like they have a breast lymphoma when they don't? That makes no sense. And this is where I get bothered by all of these things, because this was a non anaplastic large cell lymphoma, basically was a B cell lymphoma, one of the eight in the world at that point. And I was like, okay, so, you know, when we're doing things on block, that's for a very specific indication, which is cancer. And if you don't know how to do cancer surgery, you shouldn't talk about it. Just say you're not comfortable with it and send it to somebody who is. That's my complete and like, final statement of this stuff. Don't scare patients because you don't know what you're doing or you're not comfortable talking about it. Just send it to somebody who has the experience to take care of it. I've done like, you've done thousands of cases for cancer patients and reconstructive, you know, procedures. So I'm very comfortable all over the body. I'm not going to get into somebody's chest. And if I do, for whatever reason, I know how to take care of it. And that's just the nature of it. Right? You either have a skill set and you're comfortable or you don't. And that's fine. Just don't scare patients. You don't need to scare a patient because you're not comfortable. Just say you're not comfortable with it, you don't want to do it and send it to Dr. Gonzalez or send it to me. And that is fine. That's 100% professional collegial. That's great. Just don't scare patients and you know the rest of it. I agree with you. Doing a total capsulectomy in every case. I just published a paper last year about biofilm. I mean, a third of them basically have biofilm in our study. So of course we're always going to take everything out that makes no sense to leave anything behind. You know, the incidence of cancer, like we know is Very low. And then this one was ridiculously low. It's eight in the world when I did it, you know, several years ago. And now they have this squamous cell carcinoma, which I don't know what you think about. That was a little shocking to me when I first saw that reported. I mean, that's for you and I. That was like a margielins ulcer from a burn scar or something, you know, or. Or a pressure sore or something like that. But that's how it was explained to me. I was like a squamous cell is just. That's really odd.

Yes. Look at. And in my experience, only one patient from the 1500 patients has lymphoma. And this patient, you say, oh, I don't like this many vascular tissue, very big inflammation inside the big seroma. I don't like it. I prefer to make a more aggressive capsulectomy. And all our patients, we send the tissue for histopathological studies. All the capsular tissue has problems, logical cells. And for me it's impossible. The doctor says, oh no, I don't take out the capsular tissue because I can use this tissue to increase my results. When I put again implants, oh my God, I say, it's impossible. We continue this practice. Sorry. The surgeons understand you like to make breast implants. Okay, perfect, do that. But now in this new real situation, please take out the capsular tissue and put your implants again and explain to your patient all the topics. I think it's very important the education in these topics for everybody. But people don't want to listen. And I say, if you don't want to listen, you can understand and you never know. But is necessary for our patients. They start to study, but I don't know if you have the cases, the patients. Many topics about plastic surgery, many topics about breast surgery, many topics about the cellular inflammation. I say, oh, you are like a doctor. Yes, doctor in Google I find, I make a research I make, I think it's perfect. But many doctors say, hey, what happened with the patients? They're coming with the diagnosis and they say usually what is necessary to do. And I say it's perfect because your situation is very important. Just plain what happened just plain what you can do and what is the way to make this surgery? And I think this is a new future and a very interesting problem. And well, Dr. Whiffle, this is our problem because nobody wants to know. The real situation is better. You say, we don't have any problem. My patients are always healthy, but we know in the future, you will have a big problem because your patient don't know what happened in the future.

I find it interesting, the discussions about augmentations or lifts or. Well, I guess we can just break it down and say if they came to a plastic surgeon with the idea that they wanted more volume. And this is something again, that boils down to experience. If you had a 34 year old who'd had two kids and breastfed them, but wasn't happy because they had some postpartum breast involution, you know, the, the breast is not necessarily sagging, it's just kind of a little bit deflated now. And they have a B cup now. I was taught all day long that's a really easy breast augmentation. But I think of it very differently now, many years into practice, and I think about, well, if that person's BMI is X, then they're really good fat transfer candidates and, or fat transfer, mass Pepsi, whatever. There's a lot of different options for that patient rather than just breast implant. And I had this, you know, patient, to your point, come to me recently and they said, you know, I don't want a breast implant. I'm very convinced, I don't want one. What other options are there? And they, they had learned a little bit about autologous fat transfer, but didn't really understand the nuances of it. But since I've been doing fat transfer since 2004 for cancer patients, it's very simple for me to talk about and walk a patient through. And being in South America, obviously autologous fat transfer has been done for ages, or buttocks predominantly. I mean, that's been around forever now. But you don't ever hear anybody go, oh my God, I'm not happy with my butt. Og I didn't get enough fat in my butt. But somehow the breast is this kind of ungraftable area based on somebody's opinion, where both you and I know that's very simple to do. It's not hard to do. And I'm always kind of perplexed about why it's not discussed. I know one, technically it requires more equipment, right? So you have to have the equipment to do it. Fine. That's an investment of either the surgery center or the surgeon. If you want to do it, you'll do it. I mean, I have all that equipment probably like you do. I can offer that service. I have thousands of cases of experience doing it. And of course it works. I mean, the patient I just described is, is just as easy to do a fat transfer. It's actually easier, less risk. I did it under local in the office, Dr. Gonzalez. So the patient just got up and left afterwards totally fine. And that's, I mean, probably as good as it gets, right? I mean, easy, you know, local only procedure, low risk for everything, infection, dvt, pe, anything. Because it's only just a few access points that are 3 millimeters. And that's it. There's no device. It's all autogas. It's all your own genetic material. It's not going to get rejected. So it's like, why are we not discussing that a bit more? I mean, it should lead the discussion instead of being something that somebody doesn't talk about.

And if you want more volume, you can do it again.

Exactly.

Sorry, you want. Come on. I'm very thinner, doctor, I'm very fit. Okay, our neutral will explain you the new meals and you gain five pounds and do again. But you say a very interesting topic when. When the patients come to our offices, patients don't know what want. She want to look like after the pregnancy, like before the pregnancy, sorry. And she wants to see the breast again in the place, the upper pole projection, the cleavage. But she thinks because everybody talk about this, the solution is the implants, right? You don't know. Okay, and when I talk with the patient, what do you want, shape or volume? Doctor, I love my volume before the pregnancy and the prosthetic. But now I don't like the volume. I say, no, you don't like the shape because your volume is the same. But this is very sagging skin. If I take out the laxity skin and make internal techniques to put in the correct position your breast tissue, you will feel the game very good. And you recover your shape, your cleavage, your upper projection. And you are very happy without implants. I say, okay, doctor, I want to do that. I think it's very important in our practice to explain all the topics for our patients. Okay, you have implants, you want implants or you have. But you have another option without implants, is with fat, is with the technical flaps. You have different options, what do you want? And she can say, okay, I want to assume the risk or not, I don't want implants. Okay, I think it's very important, this little change in the practice, in our practice, explain all the topics for the patient. But if I don't know how to do breast surgery without implants, this is impossible to explain that I say, okay, the best solution is the implants. Come on. And I think it's ne is necessary. All the doctors develop this sensibility about this topic step by step, you know, step by step. But I love the fat. But I say always for my patients, well, I make this plantation and in the same procedure I will make the reconstruction. But my reconstruction is only with your breast tissue. Because I want to have the result like I feel she will see in the future the projection and the correct position of the breast. And if she wants more volume. After six months in my practice, I make the fat grafting because many patients look at we make a cut and December 20, 23, 1,000 patients. Only 6% of our patients put fat graft after six months. They say, Doctor, I feel very good and very safe with the shape, no matters with the volume. And this is important topic because all of us know about the resorption of the fat. All of us know about the chronic inflammation of the breast tissue and the situation about the recovery on the healing process of the tissue after this kind of surgery. It's very hard. The competition, the fat graft and the ombre tissue for the oxygen. And I think we have a very big resorption if we do at the same time. What do you think about this?

Yeah, I agree. It's a complicated situation. So we look at genetics and toxicity burden and gut health and hormone balance. And in our post operative program, when I do simultaneous fat transfers, as I did one yesterday on a patient with a lower BMI who was going to have a really difficult aesthetic result if you didn't do something at the same time. I will opt to prepare them preoperatively in three to six months and then do a simultaneous transfer. And then in my office I have hyperbaric oxygen therapy and lymphatic massage all in my office. So we offer that to all of the, the, the patients, not just the fat transfer patients. But to your point, those patients will probably derive the most benefit from that, that sort of treatment because you're providing a better environment for the graft. I always have the same discussion with patients about this. I mean, if you are of the, the BMI and we'll say, you know, closer to 20, then fat transfers are always going to be easier. And if you're closer to 80, then fat transfers are always gonna be more difficult because of our metabolism, our hormone balance. If you wanna think of just chronologic age and all the things that are affected. I think, you know, if we all just operated on young people, life would be a lot easier for both you and I because young people are much more Resilient, they just are. So of course, you know, when I do that case yesterday I did a simultaneous transfer, low BMI patient. I did a very specific technique, single sided cannulas only. I always use fours for everything. I don't ever use a circumferential hollowed out or cannula for anybody who has a low BMI ever. Because I can't even bring myself to potentially create a contour abnormality on a patient like that because they're already very small and you're taking fat out. And so I transferred about 225 per side yesterday which I took out a 265. And it was a poorly placed implant. I don't know if you run into this, but I find in lobby and my patients some of the worst surgical outcomes because of just technical misadventures mostly. And those patients don't have a lot of maybe their surrounding tissue structures not going to accommodate a device very easily. There's a lot of things that go into placing devices and I don't, you know, not to go into a technical discussion about it, but device on one side was severely displaced into the axilla and inferiorly. And so it was gonna create a big visual problem for this young person. So I feel compelled in those instances whenever possible to do fat transfers and not delay them just to, to help them because they've never really had a pregnancy or breast changes. Their skin stretch is not that that much. So you and I both know skin stretch is, is nice to have when you're going to do fat transfer. But. And I'll see that patient here in a little while in the clinic. But those are specific instances where I leverage a lot of years of work in that environment and using what we have to your point just to help them post operatively in those situations. I always like hyperbaric oxygen for you know, post op and all my patients been around it for a number of years. My mentor Bill Zamboni was a big proponent of it. Published a bunch of work in the 90s and 2000s about it. And I don't think we leverage it enough honestly.

I always during this time, I think day by day we understand more topics about this situation, this new reality. And I think it's come back to the past because you, I don't know if you remember in 1990-94, 96 in the United States have a warning dog corning implants and many situations associated with the symptoms of the patients. And after that return again, return again. And now we have again the problem Same problem. I read the different articles in the papers and I say the same problem, but now have millions of patients with the problem. That's the difference. That's a little difference. And it's necessary anybody do the work. And I think you and me and many other doctors start to understand more deeper about the problems and work together is a perfect time. Yes. For me is very important to stay here with you because you can understand what happened in Colombia. In Colombia would have the same problem like around the world. Before the COVID my patients, 20% foreign patients, 80% local patients. After the COVID 80% foreign patients, 20% local patients. Why? Because we make a virtual consultation or telephonic consultation, and people around the world come to make the surgery. And I say in all the countries have the same problem, right?

Absolutely. It's not a new problem.

This is pandemia. But it's necessary people understand and I'm very happy. First they say, Dr. Allen say, always lie about this situation. Asia syndrome. This matter doctor is crazy. Dr. Schoenfeld say that now say, oh, Asher syndrome. Yes, yes, Ashe syndrome. Yes, it's possible. And in the future, breast implant. Never now symptoms associated with the implants. Yes, it's possible. And I say, oh, don't worry, we have a new sickness for the patients. I say that be sad. Breast implant, silicone, autoimmune disease. Because the silicone is the problem. And I say to the industry, hey, what happened? 60 years with profits. Please develop new materials, develop new choices for the patient. But silicone is not the choice, not in these years. It's necessary you work, but not versus the doctors like Dr. Wheelfield or like me. Say lie. No, it's necessary the doctors make another educational program to make surgeries without implants. And at the same time you develop new materials. That's the reality. This is the future. And I don't know if you think the same.

Yeah, it's interesting because like I said when I was reviewing those historical papers, if you read the history of augmentation, how it develops, what was used, materials, et cetera, it is. I don't know, I was kind of shocked by it, to be honest, when I read it. And by the time I came into training, you know, they had form stable device. I mean, all these things were better. I didn't experience the quote, unquote, worst of the worst cases. And you know, we were always educated. The shell technology was better and all these things. And to your point, it's still extremely inflammatory to tissues. Anytime you put anything in anybody it's inflammatory. It's just the nature of it. So some are probably less than others. You know, whatever. I mean, I've taken care of. I don't know if you did this, but if you're a surgeon who puts in a device, you have called someone like me to help take care of that device, once it got exposed, infected, you had to change it out. And these are like, they can be life threatening. Right. If you have an infected pacemaker, if you have an infected hip prosthesis or a knee prosthesis or. I did a lot of sarcoma reconstruction. I mean, these are all complicated issues. And we're not trying to. I'm not trying to make them less complicated. I just. From a choice perspective, like Dr. Gonzalez has pointed out, you want to explain all the options to the patient. That allows the patient to make their best decision. That fits and aligns with them personally, and it shouldn't be affected by our professional ability. Like I said, if you can't do something, just say you can't do it. Doesn't mean you can't talk about it. But you should be able to explain the options to the patient and then the patient can decide whether or not that makes sense to them and what they want to have done. And I always have no problem saying no to people. It's not, not a big deal to me. If I don't, if I don't like their vision is, it's okay. I mean, I don't. I've never had a problem with saying no or if I don't know how to do something. I mean, I would tell you. Yeah, but I mean, my whole career is based on a very, very long, extensive experience clinically like yours and doing a lot of reconstructive surgery. So there's really very few things that can bother me or that I don't have experience with at some level. At this point. I've been operating for almost 30 years, so it's not really. I mean, things haven't dramatically changed to your point. Like, are there really better products right now? Not so much. Pretty much the same.

Yes, but this is one choice. Okay, well, many people loves biomaterials. Okay, perfect. But the silicone is not the choice. Okay, what do you want to do? You love biomaterials. Okay, you do that. But understand always any biomaterial produce immunological response and produce inflammatory situation. And look at this. I think it's very important for the people understand this kind of surgery is necessary and expert. Why I say that because the decision Is a very big decision for the patient. Oh, I have volume. I will lose the volume and the projection. I will have a secondary deformity after I take out my implants. But if the doctor knows how to do the reconstruction, I feel safe, I feel good. When I see to the mirror, I feel better. But if the doctor don't do that, I say, why I take out my implants. I'm crazy with this deformity. I don't want life. This is very important for the patient to understand. It's a very big decision and make a consultation with the expert and the doctors during this time, start to study and start in the practice how to do that. I don't know if it's your case, but in my case the doctors don't call me a Allen. I want to visit you and I want to see how do you do that? No, they say, alan, only take out the implants. I say, no, doctors, you are wrong. It's necessary. You start to make the surgery without implants. I say, in Colombia, when I start with the plantation, I say, I have a problem. It's necessary to take out the implants. But I have the solution. This is a technique with L shape incision. We come with the breast of the patient. We can make the movements safe movements. We preserve the nipple areola complex. We come in really change the anatomical position of the tissue and good shape for the patient. With less volume. Absolutely. But it's important doctors just start to make the surgery without implants. The lift, the reduction, all the topics without implants. And if you want volume, fat is the choice too. And in different steps. Maybe if the patient want more volume. But I think it's necessary to change our mind and understand we are in the new era of the breast surgery.

I think that's a great place to end because I agree in full disclosure, you have to offer all those different options. And whether it's in Columbia with you or in Austin, Texas with me, that's probably the way to at least start and get an explanation so that it helps them make a better decision. So I really want to thank you for joining us today. I appreciate it. I'm glad you're doing work like this. I think it's extremely important in your contribution to the scientific literature as well has been very important. So thank you for Joining me today, Dr. Whit.

It's a pleasure to be here and thanks you for your job and very proud for you and well, we'll keep on touch. Okay, thanks for.

Thanks for joining me today. I hope you found the information and stories shared on this podcast helpful and informative. Remember, taking control of your health and wellness is key to recovery from breast implant illness. If you're looking for additional resources and support, be sure to visit our online store, Dr. Rob's Solutions at drrobsolutions.myshopify.com you'll find a wide range of wellness products and supplements to support your journey to recovery. From specially formulated detox supplements to personalized skincare products, we have everything you need to aid your recovery. Visit Dr. Rob's Solutions today at drrobssolutions.myshopify.com thank you for listening and we'll be back with another episode soon. Remember, are not alone in this journey, and together we can overcome breast implant illness. Take care. Of.