Management of complications in reconstructive mammoplasties with prostheses: systematic review

Objective: The aims of this study were to determine the main managements of surgical complications in reconstructive mammoplasties with prostheses through a systematic literature review, and to evaluate the effectiveness in preserving the reconstruction.The secondary objective was to analyze factors regarding prosthetic loss.Methods: We used the MedLine database through the following expressions: "breast cancer" or "breast neoplasm" or "breast and neoplasm" or "breast and cancer" and "implants complications" or "implants and complications".The reference period for these studies comprised January 2000 to July 2016.Results: Of the 856 articles found, seven were included to analyze the applied protocols.The rate of saved prostheses after stratification of complications and use of managements varied from 45 to 100%, depending on the degree of complication.Other 12 articles that evaluated the factors associated with prosthetic loss were secondarily chosen.Radiotherapy was considered the most frequent factor and was found in seven studies.The number of lost prostheses varied from 0.9 to 22.7% in such studies.Conclusion: There is still no agreement on how to manage complications of reconstructive mammoplasties with prostheses.The decision remains a challenge, and therefore surgeons need to know the possible conducts in order to establish the most appropriate treatment.