The Fate of Breast Implants with Infections Around Them

In a retrospective study of 41 infected breasts following the insertion of implants, a high incidence of postoperative hematoma was noted. When infection occurred, cultures usually demonstrated the causative organism to be Staphylococcus aureus. Treatment by conservative drainage and vigorous antibiotics was generally successful in salvaging those implants which had been inserted through an areolar incision for simple augmentation, or under the pectoralis muscle (or a dermal pedicle) after a subcutaneous mastectomy. Those patients whose augmentations had been done through an inframammary incision, or whose implant after a subcutaneous mastectomy was under the skin flap, had a statistically higher incidence of implant loss. Most breasts will salvaged implants became firm.