A short clinical commentary by Robert Whitfield MD describing precautions when diagnosing breast implant illness (BII). He explains taking patients to surgery to avoid bacterial contamination, performing an en bloc capsulectomy per patient request, sending the entire capsule for pathology and cultures, and noting that pathology-negative results are crucial in cancer cases.
We always make sure that there is no bacterial or, you know, micro bacterial contaminant in there. And, you know, we do that time surgery. So, you know, I. I took this patient to the operating room once again, was asymptomatic, just went her reconstruction taken down. I did everything in the manner discussed, did it as an en bloc cap selectomy per her request, and did cultures of the pocket, took portions of this to send off. I'm sorry, took the entire capsule and then sent it off for pathology. And about a week later, everything comes back and pathology was negative, which is always paramount in any cancer case. You want to make sure there's no evidence of disease or recurrent disease.
