Robert Whitfield MD explains his practice of excising scar and breast tissue during explant/reconstruction procedures and always sending specimens for pathology. He reports publishing a consecutive series (~698–700) of PCR-tested explant scar specimens and states that 29% showed bacterial contamination, arguing this is a significant, previously under-recognized problem that should not be ignored.
I have people who basically, you know, they're not like a nut allergy, anaphylactic allergic, but you can tell. Yeah, not for them. And then every single, the, you know, for everybody listening. So every time I take out a device, I did the same thing I would do for the many years I did cancer reconstruction. I always take all the scar tissue out and we always culture it. Pathology, you don't ever want to miss recurrent cancer that would cause the patient potentially their life or you don't want underlying infections. And.
For everybody listening, like, I've never taken scar tissue out of a patient or breast tissue out of a patient and not sent it for pathology because that is below the standard of care to me personally. And now I have the largest series of PCR tested explant scar specimen samples in the world. So I published last year a consecutive series of 700, I think 698, 700. That shows that 29% have bacterial contamination. This is huge. You can't put your head in the sand and ignore the problem anymore.
