Robert Whitfield MD explains why textured breast implants were pulled from the European market in 2019 over lymphoma risk. He counsels patients on replacement around year eight, citing a ten-year shelf life and noting rupture risk climbs roughly 0.5% annually.
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.
