I Have Had a Ruptured Saline Inplant for a Year. Is This Safe?

Is it safe to leave a ruptured implant in your body? Saline

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10 Doctor Answers | Asked by carlie54 in Salt Lake City, UT

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Ruptured implant safety

It is safe although I am sure that you can't be pleased with the asymmetry of your chest. I am seeing more women these days who have had deflations and cannot afford to replace the implant in this economy. Please contact your plastic surgeon to ascertain whether a replacement implant could be provided free of charge by the manufacturer. Mentor is quite good about this.

Ruptured implant

If you have a ruptured implant, it should come out. A saline will deflate but the shell will remain in place. It could eventually extrude because of the implant folding on itself. As for the silicone implant, it should also come out. While it usually stays locally withina a capsule, it may become extracapsular and cause more of a problem.

Steven Wallach, MD

12 reviews

Manhattan Plastic Surgeon

Ruptured saline implant is safe for a time

When a saline breast implant wears and leaks, the saline is absorbed leaving the inert silicone rubber shell. The shell should eventually be removed, though it is true that it is safe to leave a considerable time, even a year if family conflict or finances prevent replacement. Silicone gel is another as leaking will cause capsular contracture and calcification in the pocket and the sooner removed the better. Best of luck, peterejohnsonmd

Leaving Ruptured Implants in Your Body Not the Best Idea

Although in most women it is both possible and safe to leave ruptured saline implants in their body it is not recommended by most plastic surgeons. Once there is a leak in the implant, then serum can also enter it which is a potential site for infection. In general leaving a foreign body without providing a purpose doesn't make a lot of sense. Removing implants is straight forward and can even be done in the office under local anesthesia to minimize costs if this is what is preventing... more

1 year ruptured saline implant

Thank you for your question. When a saline breast implant ruptures, the salt water is absorbed into your body. The empty shell that remains folds on itself. You may feel the edges of the shell when you do self-exams on your breasts. At some point, the shell needs to come out. You can choose to have no implants or have a new one placed. Depending on how much of your own tissue you have over the implant, you could actually extrude the implant shell. This doesn't... more

I Have Had a Ruptured Saline Inplant for a Year. Is This Safe?

The issue is not the released saline. It is reabsorbed into your system. But the silicone shell that has "folds" in it. These folds can erode the tissue all the way through the skin. So I recommend removal of the implant shell within 60 days of deflation. So there is no issue to skin/tissue/breast erosion. I believe if a foreign body is doing no function in the body it should be removed in a timely fashion. Also the contraction around the empty shell can cause additional... more

Deflated Saline Implant

Thank you for the question. When a patient who has saline implants has a deflation, the saline from within the implant will be absorbed by the body (no harm done) and so it is not an emergency to have the implant removed and replaced. Please know that you can have your plastic surgeon check and see if your implants are within the time to receive a stipend back from the breast implant company. They will give you a complimentary implant and some money to go back to the operating... more

Deflated saline implant

It contains only salt water which is perfectly safe. The main downside to leaving in a deflated implant is the pocket will shrink around it so that when you eventually replace it you may experience more soreness from the tissues getting stretched out again.

Marcel Daniels, MD

11 reviews

Long Beach Plastic Surgeon

Ruptured saline implants, Breast implants

A saline implant probably has lost all of the contained saline from it at this time. This will never be a risk to you. The shell of the implant is all that remains, as well as the scar that surrounds the implant, better known as the capsule. The longer that one goes without replacement the smaller the space into which the implant was originally placed is. This will only make it a little harder for the surgeon to replace the implant for you, but this... more

Implants are safe

It is safe to leave the implant bag in place, even if it does not have any fluid left in it. Saline implants are filled with a sterile saline solution, if they leak, the body just absorbs the fluid and it does not cause any harm. The implant bag will curl up and become non-noticeable. In some women, the edge of the bag may become palpable under the skin and become a source of pain, in that case have the bag removed. You are at a crossroads with your implants and... more