Dr. Robert Whitfield explains why textured breast implants were pulled from European markets in 2019 due to a rare lymphoma link. He recommends thinking of implants as having roughly a 10-year lifespan, starting replacement talks around year 8, and replacing any ruptured device immediately.
Questions this video answers
2019
Approximately 10 years
Around year 8
About 0.5% per year
Schedule and exchange the ruptured device (do not instruct patient to keep it)
Chapters
Textured implants were pulled off the market in 2019 in Europe because there's a lymphoma that can develop from a certain textured surface. Is there a certain, like, kind of inflection point where it would be wise for women to have them removed and have fresh ones put in or does. Is that even something people do? Yeah, I got asked a lot about that. And so the way I was trained is they gave it like a ten year shelf life. And they, you know, trained us to discuss that starting. You know, I was trying to discuss it starting at year eight, and I didn't treat my cosmetic or my cancer patients differently. I saw them annually and I'd have that discussion with them starting year eight because there's a half percent per year increase in the rupture rate. And if someone had, say, a cancer reconstruction and under surveillance, you know, they had a change either on a MRI or ultrasound or mammogram, whatever study they had, and it ultimately was worked up and they had a rupture, we would of course, get them scheduled and exchange that device out. I'm never, ever, ever instructed the patient to keep a ruptured device.
