Robert Whitfield MDAmerica's Breast Implant Illness Expert™

Explant Surgery Risks Revealed: What You NEED To Know! #shorts

23 Dec 2025 · 1 min

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1:05

A short transcript from Dr. Robert Whitfield discussing risks and complications of breast explant surgery, especially in the context of breast implant illness and reconstruction. He states that overall risks mirror implant surgery but notes a low incidence of pneumothorax, reporting five pneumothorax events in nearly 1,200 explants in his experience.

Questions this video answers

Almost 1,200 explants ("over almost 1200 explants").

Five pneumothorax cases.

Chapters

Doctor Whitfield and welcome to my breast implant illness podcast. Today's question that we're going to look into deeper is are there any risks or complications associated with breast explant surgery? So breast explant surgery is performed for a variety of reasons. Most commonly my practice for breast implant illness, it can be obviously performed for somebody who's tired of having their reconstruction, just wants it taken down, wants to go back to a natural result or a breast cancer patient who's flat. I've had a experience in all of those, relatively large experience obviously in breast implant illness Risk and complications associated with explants are basically the same with implants with a couple caveats. There is an incidence of entering the chest cavity, which is called a pneumothorax in augmentations. It's low. Personally, I've done over almost 1200 explants at this point and that instance where you get pneumothorax has happened to me in five cases in, you know, almost 1200, you know, explants. So super low incidence.