A breast implant operation is often perceived as very simple and a ‘quick fix’ for smaller or sagging breasts. However, a careful assessment is required and each procedure should be individually designed to meet the patient’s needs and desires. Decisions should be taken on implant size, shape and texturing, whether the implant is placed above or below the chest wall muscle and what incision is used. Frequently this can be misjudged, and patients seek a second opinion.
Given Mr Harris’s background training in reconstructive surgery, he is experienced in correcting breast implant problems. Indeed, he was chosen as the expert surgeon for such problems in five series of a UK TV programme called Botched Up Bodies.
He continues to offer a corrective service to many patients, however he does not offer such revisional surgery for at least two years following the initial operation. This allows time for the tissues to settle and any unresolved issues between the patient and the original surgeon to be clarified.
Beyond complications from the initial operation, breast implants can develop problems over time. These problems include capsular contracture, breast implant rupture, a very rare white blood cell malignancy called ALCL and a more recently recognised condition known as Breast Implant Illness. Each of these conditions (detailed below) need to be treated differently after full radiological and clinical assessment. Finally, as patients age, their body shape changes and what was right for them ten or twenty years earlier may not be right for them now. Breast implants are never life-long and therefore many patients request revisional breast surgery to improve the look of their breasts to a more age-appropriate shape and size.
What’s important for all patients is to keep checking their breasts and if they notice a change to see a plastic surgeon who deals with such issues.
Mr Harris spends a great deal of time trying to manage the expectations of patients before implant exchange surgery, so that they fully understand the likely outcome of their operation.
In collaboration with other plastic surgery colleagues, Mr Harris has recently created a new company to offer such rapid and combined assessment. This company is called Implant Health and has several centres within the UK.
BREAST IMPLANT RUPTURE
Breast implants are usually made of an outer silicone shell and inner silicone gel. These have different consistencies.
CAPSULAR CONTRACTURE
Breast implants are usually made of silicone and as such, are a foreign material within the body. The body’s response is to wall the implants off in a layer of specialised scar tissue.
ALCL & BII
Breast Implant Association – Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (BIA-ALCL) Around 2015, it became clear from several scientific articles that a white blood cell malignancy was being recognised around some breast implants.