Robert Whitfield MDAmerica's Breast Implant Illness Expert™

Understanding Breast Implant-Related Illness: Symptoms, Risks, and Treatments

16 Apr 2018 · 1 min

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0:37

Dr. Robert Whitfield (YouTube, Apr 16, 2018) discusses that a subset of patients with breast implants report systemic symptoms—pain, fatigue, fibromyalgia-like symptoms, and possible autoimmune manifestations—which they attribute to their implants. He describes offering en bloc capsulectomy (removal of the entire capsule and implants), culturing the implant pocket, treating positive cultures with antibiotics, and reports that most patients had significant improvement in overall well-being after implant removal.

Chapters

There is a subset of patients with breast implants who feel like their implants are making them sick. Pain, discomfort, certain physical manifestations of fatigue, maybe fibromyalgia, maybe other symptoms of autoimmune disorders. So in this small subset of patients who feel like their breast implants are making them sick, I've offered them en bloc capsulectomy where we remove the entire capsule and remove the implants and culture the implant pocket. We treat them with antibiotics if cultures are proven to be positive. And for the most part, we've had a significant improvement in their overall state of well being after implant removal.