Failed Implant Breast Reconstruction: What Are Your Options

Most implant failures happen due to poor, deficient, scarred, or radiated soft tissue envelope around them. The larger the implant, the smaller the amount of healthy tissue around them, and the higher the likelihood of complications. Compared to implant failures after cosmetic augmentation, the problem after mastectomy is more severe since the normal soft tissue has been surgically excised and scarred by additional interventions. When the soft tissues are deficient and radiated, it is only a matter of time until the implant reconstruction fails.

What are the most common problems women can have after breast reconstruction with implants?

Infection

Infection after an implant reconstruction can happen at any time, but is most common within the first 3 weeks after surgery. Signs of infection include redness of the skin and breast swelling. Antibiotics are used to treat the infection initially, but unfortunately this is not always successful. If antibiotics don’t cure the infection, the implant should be removed.

Visible implant rippling and “breast animation”

The remaining breast skin envelope after a mastectomy can be quite thin and lead to visible implant “ripples” when there isn’t enough tissue covering the implant. This can be particularly bothersome in the cleavage area. To decrease the amount of rippling, most plastic surgeons prefer to place implants under the chest (“pec”) muscle to maximize the amount of tissue over the implant. Unfortunately, this often creates a very unnatural breast movement when patients use their chest muscle – as the muscle contracts, it squeezes down on the implant and temporarily deforms the breast. This doesn’t cause any harm and the breast returns to normal when the muscle relaxes, but patients quickly learn which movements to avoid in public.

Capsular contracture

Capsular contracture is caused by tightening of the breast tissue and scar capsule around the implant. When this occurs, the breast becomes firm and hard. This can be very painful and can cause significant breast asymmetry.

Implant displacement or asymmetry

No two breasts are alike, so slight differences will always be apparent, but sometimes breast implants can shift or become displaced causing dramatic asymmetry, even in the absence of capsular contracture.

Feeling cold

The goal of a mastectomy is to remove as close to 100% of the breast tissue as possible. As already mentioned, the remaining breast skin envelope after a mastectomy can be quite thin. This means that in many cases there isn’t a great deal of tissue covering the implant. For this reason, coupled with the fact that the implants themselves don’t have a blood supply, many women complain of their reconstructed breast(s) feeling cold.

Chronic pain

Causes of chronic pain after implant placement can be caused by numerous factors but the most common cause is capsular contracture. Living with chronic pain can dramatically reduce quality of life.

Implant rupture

A rupture occurs when there is a tear in the breast implant causing the saline or silicone to disperse. Ruptured implants need to be replaced.

Implant exposure

Wound healing problems can occasionally happen after a mastectomy that can lead to breakdown of the incision site, or even a new wound. This can lead to exposure of the tissue expander or implant. Some women can also experience skin thinning over time, especially if they have had previous radiation, which can lead to implant exposure some time after completion of the reconstruction.

Problems because of radiation therapy

Radiation therapy and implants do not mix well. Radiation either before or after implant reconstruction significantly increases the risk of infection, wound healing problems, capsular contracture, breast tightness, chronic pain, implant exposure, need for implant removal and reconstructive failure.

What can be done?

After a failed implant reconstruction, we typically recommend removal of the implant and surrounding scar tissue, and further reconstruction using the patient’s own tissue (an autologous “flap”). There is no better substitute than new, healthy tissue to recreate a “natural”, soft, warm breast. Our preferred flap technique, and gold standard in Breast reconstruction in general, is the DIEP flap procedure. The DIEP, which is the most advanced form of breast reconstruction available today, uses the patient’s abdominal skin and fat to reconstruct a natural, warm, soft breast while completely preserving the underlying abdominal muscles. Saving the abdominal muscles means patients experience less pain, enjoy a faster recovery, maintain their core strength long-term, and have a lower risk of complications.

The 25 year old woman who discovered her £4,000 breast implant was left hanging OUT of her chest

Lauren Yardley had always dreamed of having a more curvaceous figure. So at 25, and tired of her "boyish" shape, she decided to buy what Mother Nature had not given her. She paid almost £4,000 for a breast implant operation, increasing her A-cup size breasts to DD.

But to her horror, just two months after the surgery, her body started to reject one of the implants. Weeks later, it actually started protruding from her chest and came through the skin. Now the nursery worker wants to warn women of the potential pitfalls of cosmetic surgery. source

The man who died from penis-enhancing injection

A New Jersey woman has been charged with homicide after authorities said she injected silicone into the penis of a man who later died of a blood clot. The 22-year-old victim had been seeking an affordable penis enhancement. 

Kasia Rivera, 34, of East Orange, was arrested on manslaughter charges and unauthorized practice of medicine in the death of Justin Street. Street died the day after he received the injection at Rivera's home. The medical examiner determined the cause of death as silicone embolism as a result of the injection, according to prosecutors. source

Jocelyn Wildenstein: a US$4 million monster

Known by the press by the nickname of "The Bride of Wildenstein" --a reference to The Bride of Frankenstein--, Jocelyn Wildenstein has allegedly spent almost US$4,000,000 on cosmetic surgery over the years, ending up as one of the worst and most famous cases of plastic surgery addiction. But who did that happened? 

Once upon a time, in the late 70’s there was a beautiful women named Jocelyn Wildenstein. Jocelyn really had it made. She was a fresh-faced mother of two and married to an extremely rich art dealer. That is until she caught her husband in bed with a 21 year old Russian model. Now, any normal person would just leave her husband and take all of his money with her, right? Not Jocelyn Wildenstein! Instead she decided to win back her husbands love and make herself more beautiful by going under the knife. Well, her husband left her anyways, but Jocelyn will always have her plastic surgeon. 

Pete Burns: famous singer, spent almost all of his life savings on reconstructive surgery

Pete Burns, former frontman of the British band Dead or Alive --famous for their single "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)"--, has had extensive polyacrylamide injections into his lips, along with cheek implants, several nose re-shapings and many tattoos. 

She revealed in early 2006 that he had spent almost all of his life savings on eighteen months of reconstructive surgery after a procedure on his lips went horribly wrong. 

Hang Mioku: the korean plastic surgery addict who injected cooking oil into her own face

One of the most famous cases of awful plastic surgery gone wrong, Hang Mioku, a 48 year-old woman from South Korea, became so addicted to plastic surgery that she was left unrecognisable after her obsession led her to inject cooking oil into her face. She had her first plastic surgery procedure when she was 28. Following operation after operation, her face was eventually left enlarged and disfigured, and the surgeons she visited refused to carry out any more work on her and one suggested that her obsession could be a sign of a psychological disorder. So Hang resorted to injecting cooking oil into her face. It became so grotesquely large that she was called "standing fan" by children in her neighbourhood - due to her large face and small body. 

As Hang's notoriety spread she was featured on Korean TV, viewers seeing the report took mercy on her and sent in enough donations to enable her to have surgery to reduce the size of her face. During the first procedure surgeons removed 60g of foreign substance from Hang's face and 200g from her neck. After several other sessions her face was left greatly reduced but still scarred and disfigured, a true challenge for korean plastic surgery. 

Nikki Cox (best known for her role on “Unhappily Ever After”)

Now, this doesn’t look too bad compared to the others on the list. However, if you compare the before and after photos of actress Nikki Cox (best known for her role on “Unhappily Ever After”), you’ll notice a big difference. From looking like a hot supermodel to looking like, well, a mannequin, she definitely chose the wrong doctor to work on her face. This is why getting Botox is a tricky procedure to undergo. It’s a pass or fail kind of thing.

In her after photo, Nikki seems to be having a hard time smiling for the cameras. That’s a clear sign of Botox, because you have no proper control of your facial muscles (they’re just stiff.) The skin on and around Nikki’s lips seem to be getting taut from the fillers. With such unkissable lips, lets hope Nikki still gets her happily ever after.

Daryl Hannah has also horrible plastic surgery!!

Daryl Hannah was one of the most gorgeous women from the 80?s. I’ve admired her so much because of her talents and advocacies. As we grow older, our bodies fail to inform us when they’re planning on changing some things— it’s like renting an apartment, then suddenly getting an eviction notice. So, some women opt to get work done.

In Daryl’s case, things didn’t go so well— she looks even older. If we can’t trust our doctors, who can we trust? Now, Daryl never did confirm that she had any work done, but her before and after photos say otherwise. Her beauty was very unique by Hollywood standards because despite being the typical blonde, her looks still had an exotic touch. Daryl seems to have had some lip injections, Botox, cheek implants, and some face lifting—evidently, from a horrible plastic surgeon.

Italian socialite Michaela Romanini, hillarious plastic surgery

Botox and lip injections are both considered to be “lunch time procedures”, as they’re something you can get done in 30 minutes.

Botox is essentially a toxin that paralyzes your face. Botox get rids of wrinkles, but don’t you think it’s a bit counter productive to get Botox then get a tan? You’re just making things worse for yourself if you get your face paralyzed to get rid of wrinkles, then immediately expose your face to the sun (which gives you wrinkles.) That’s a recipe for disaster, just ask Italian socialite Michaela Romanini.

Michaela has said that she developed an addiction to lip collagen injections at a young age and still continues to get them today. From being one of the most beautiful European socialites, Michaela looks drastically different now, and is practically unrecognizable.

can we say Anushka Sharma leading bollywood actress has became another victim of horrible plastic surgery ?!

Now this girlfriend of Virat Kohli seems to be either in the news for her funny duck lips or for her love life. After a recent television show, it was pretty evident that this lady didn’t want to be left behind amongst the list of Bollywood celebrities who went for plastic surgery.

source:fashionlady.in

Amanda Lepore had too much fillers put in her cheeks and lips!

There are different stages of getting plastic surgery done. It’s a scary thing to undergo because of all the sharp objects, but it is a small sacrifice for the ultimate goal of being beautiful. Then there’s Amanda Lepore (who is just a divinely talented queen, really) who had too much fillers put in her cheeks and lips.

When was contouring discovered? Because she could have definitely benefited from it without going to a doctor. Also, her lips take me back to my childhood— back when I used to get those wax lips, “candy” that taste like a scented candle.

Amanda has spoken up about how painful her transformation was, and I honestly think she didn’t need any of those drastic measures like having her ribs broken to appear thinner. I know that beauty is pain, but that doesn’t mean that it should be a suicide mission for perfection.