Ruptured implant. Eek. That sounds so violent, like explosions and car crashes. Most implants don’t truly “rupture,” they tend to leak. Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, sometimes intermittently.
Breathe.
Implants are not made to last a lifetime. Regardless of what type of implant you have, this is not a 911 rush to the ER kind of thing. You should make an appointment and go see your doctor. When you call the office, let them know what happened. Sometimes you know there was a change, sometimes it was something seen on mammogram. It doesn’t matter. Again remember: Breathe.
FIRST: Do you have saline or silicone? If a saline implant is leaking, you will know because the implant will get smaller or go flat. If you have a silicone implant it usually maintains its size, but the shape may change or it may turn hard.
SECOND: You may get sensation changes. This is normal and does not mean something terrible is going on inside. When the skin unstretches, the nerves get irritated. Irritated nerves do all sorts of things: zings, sharp stabby pain, soreness, itching.
THIRD: If you have saline, you can have a deflated implant for a long time and not deal. You will asymmetric and may have to bring out the sock drawer to stuff your bra, but there is no rush to replace the implant. Your body will absorb the saline. I once had a patient who (Murphy’s Law) deflated while pregnant. We couldn’t operate on her while pregnant, and then she had a little baby and was breast feeding, and we didn’t want to interrupt that, so we waited. She was deflated for almost two years. When she was ready we fixed it. Easy peasy.
FOURTH: If you have silicone, you should fix the implant in a timely fashion, but it is not a 911 emergency. Your body forms a scar around the breast implant after it is placed. We call that a capsule. Everyone has a capsule. When your implant leaks, the silicone is not flying all around your body. It gets caught by the capsule. I have operated on ancient ruptured implants, and I don’t see silicone outside of this capsule (once in a rare rare moon I see “extracapsular spread,” but it is truly rare). So you need to deal in a timely fashion, but it isn’t like a clear-the-decks-let’s-d0-this-tomorrow kind of thing.
FIFTH: When you see your doctor do a few things:
- Have a copy of your implant or operation report.
- Think about things: was there anything you wanted to change? Go bigger? smaller? do a lift? change to gel implants? get them out of your armpit? the width of the implant? was the right one always a bit bigger?
- Use this as a silver lining- change the things you didn’t like if you can.
- If you are within 10 years, part of your surgery may be covered by your warranty. (But for this you need to know your implant manufacturer and date of surgery.)
Please know we plastic surgeons do breast implant revisions all. the. time. It is normal. Breathe, call the office, and follow the above directions.