Breast implant illness uncommon cause of revision surgery

Among women with silicone breast implants, breast implant illness (BII) is an uncommon indication for revision, according to a study published online Oct. 7 in JAMA Network Open.

Annemiek S. Lieffering, from the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research in Utrecht, and colleagues assessed how often women with silicone breast implants have their implants explanted or replaced because of BII. Analysis included data from a retrospective cohort of 12,882 patients undergoing breast implant revision surgery (April 1, 2015, to December 31, 2020), and a 47,564 prospective cohort undergoing breast implantation and revision surgery (April 1, 2015, to December 31, 2019).

The researchers found that in the prospective cohort, 1.6 percent of cosmetic breast implants were revised after a median time to reoperation of 1.8 years, and 11.8 percent of reconstructive breast implants were revised after a median time to reoperation of 1.1 years. Among the revision surgeries, BII was cited as the reason for 4.7 percent of cosmetic revisions and 0.7 percent of reconstructive revisions in the prospective cohort, corresponding to 0.1 percent of the inserted implants. In the legacy cohort, BII was responsible for 4.2 percent of cosmetic revisions and 2.7 percent of reconstructive breast implant revisions.

"In contrast to the increasing public interest in BII, these results showed that local complications are a far more common reason for breast implant revision," the authors write.