Punam Bijlani
Lifeline Health Care Group, United Arab Emirates
Title: Breast implant salvage- A working algorithm
Biography
Biography: Punam Bijlani
Abstract
This study develops on the author’s experience and includes a review of other studies that pinpoint to threats to unsuccessful breast device salvage and recurrent infection/exposure while developing an effective management guideline. Amongst the conceivable complications accompanying the usage of breast implants are peri-prosthetic infection and device extrusion. While there are several recommendations, there is no firm effective algorithm for the management of these situations. A retrospective review of 21 patients with peri-prosthetic infection or threatened or actual device exposure treated by the author along with a review of 110 articles by a PubMed search were included in this study. A retrospective analysis of multi-surgeon breast implant usage from 2004 to 2015 was performed. The author’s studies were comparable with a large number of reviewed studies where over 75% with no infection were salvaged with aggressive surgical and conservative therapy, whereas less than 25% are salvageable when infection or lack of soft tissue cover availability is demonstrated. Based on the author’s experience and those of the reviewed articles, a working algorithm to salvage breast prosthesis has been formulated.