Saving a heart defibrillator from a rupture breast implant

What is it about?

Can we maintain health and aesthetic? a case of a Heart rhythm implantable device (life saving) disruption of a silicon breast implant.

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Photo by pawel szvmanski on Unsplash

Photo by pawel szvmanski on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Because of the prevalence of breast implants in cosmetic and reconstructive breast surgery and the natural aging of the population, more cases of female patients with silicone breast implants in need of an AICD may be encountered in the future. This case report illustrates the rare but real possibility of breast implant rupture after minor surgical breast manipulations, such as a routine AICD insertion. We suggest keeping in mind the option of breast implants in female AICD candidates, consulting medical and surgical records to validate the plane in which the breast implants are placed, and in case the implants are placed subglandularly with thin soft-tissue coverage, the implant location should be preoperatively marked and careful blunt dissection used in creating the AICD pocket well above the preoperative mark. Inversely, when performing breast augmentation on a patient with an AICD in place, we suggest that in addition to consulting with the patient’s electrocardiologist, the skin quality above and around the device should be assessed, the AICD pocket preoperatively marked, and a subpectoral pocket preferred to reduce the chance of the AICD pocket violation.

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