For you, I would wait a year.

To margaret6,

Hi! After a typical infection, 6 months is a reasonable period of time to wait before replacing the implant. But you describe a difficult and unusual complication. You say that it took a full year from your original surgery until the wound healed.

This suggests that you may have a lot of internal scarring and possibly thinning of the tissues. So I would wait longer, not so much because there is such a high risk of another infection, but rather because the surgery may go better if you give the internal scarring time to soften.

Margaret,

I am sorry about your complicated breast augmentation. It is generally accepted that a six month waiting period after infected breast implant removal is a sufficient amount of time for your body to clear the infection completely from your tissues.

Fortunately, this complication occurs very infrequently and the likelihood of it happening to you again is also remote.

The shower with Hibiclens recommendation on the night before your surgery is an additional means to decreasing your infection risk. There is evidence that Hibiclens wipes used in the shower provide better antibacterial protection for the skin than the Hibiclens soap. Ask your plastic surgeon about using them.

Good luck!

It sounds like you got good advice by your doctors. Concern about a new implant is a valid one, but most people would say that waiting 6 months or until the tissues were soft is the appropriate earliest time to replace your implant. If your infectious disease doctor and your surgeon feel that this is the appropriate amount of time, then you should feel comfortable to go ahead. Remember, that a staph infection can happen anytime from may different sources.