Implant Removal Surgery – Double PIP Rupture
Aurora is now part of The Private Clinic, a nationwide group of clinics with over 35 years of experience specialising in Cosmetic Surgery and Skin and a Trust Pilot 5 star rating. For comprehensive information, before and after photos and costs on Implant removal and replacement procedures click here
Our expert Plastic Surgeon Adrian Richards is the Medical Director for The Private Clinic. Clinics are located in Birmingham, Bristol, Buckinghamshire, Glasgow, London Harley Street, Leeds, Manchester and Northampton.
In this video our patient has her PIP implants removed, as they were causing her problems. They were inserted back in 2005 and over the last few months, the left breast has become painful and has very noticeable swelling. Mr Richards believes this is a seroma, which is a build up of fluid around the implant.
The implant removal surgery begins, and the breasts are compared. The left is larger due to the swelling. Mr Richards then feels both breasts, with the right being softer, and the left reasonably hard.
We start on the right side. As Mr Richards opens up the pocket to retrieve the implant, he is greeted by creamy fluid which signifies this implant is ruptured. This is surprising to an extent, as he was not expecting this implant to be ruptured, although you can never be surprised really when a PIP implant is ruptured. As it is removed, we see the rupture, with silicone escaping the shell. Mr Richards takes a look around the implant to find the rupture point, and locates it, in the usual spot around the base-plate.
We then move over to the left breast. As the pocket is opened, fluid squirts out under the tension of the capsule. Mr Richards sucks out the fluid and as he does this you can literally see the breast deflating. The fluid was quite watery to begin with, but it did thicken to the creamy fluid we expect to see from a ruptured PIP. We expected the implant to be ruptured, and upon its removal, we see it absolutely is. The implant is very yellow in its colour, and badly out of shape. As Mr Richards is holding it, bits of silicone are falling out all over the place, and he actually uses the phrase, “Complete Mess” to describe the implant, which is all honesty is a perfect analysis. He then moves the implant around to try and piece it back together into its original shape, and when this is accomplished we realise that the rupture, once again has occurred around the base-plate.
At the end of the procedure, the implants are compared. The right implant has creamy fluid present and visible within the shell. This rupture doesn’t seem as advanced as the left side. Mr Richards picks up the right implant and demonstrates how weak they are around the base-plate by tearing it a bit. The left implant was in a much more sorry state, being very dark yellow and a huge split in the shell. Originally he thought it was one of the worst we have seen, but on a second look he realises we have seen far, far worse.