How Common Are Moldy Saline Breast Implants ?

I have been reading some scary stuff about saline implants lately that are making me very nervous about keeping them in. How common is it that the saline could get fungi/moldy or cause the implant to go black? Is this more likely to happen the longer they are in?

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6 Doctor Answers | Asked by worried and nervous in PA

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Also never seen moldy breast implants

in view of all the responders who have already answered, clearly this is an extremely rare event. I too have never seen it happen, and have been in practice for twenty-one years. it is probably not reasonable to be very worried about this happening . hope all these answers will enable you to reduce your level of concern.

Bruce K. Barach, MD

7 reviews

Schenectady Plastic Surgeon

drbarach.com

Nearly 16 years

I haven't seen it. I have thousands of cases under my belt, so I have seen a lot too. I would not worry too much about the scary stuff you have read.

This is rare

I agree with Dr. Lentz - I too have been in practice over 30 years and saw this once and wrote a case report that was published in our journal - Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. To me, this is a non issue.

I have never seen moldy breast implants

I have been in practice for 22 years. There has never been a case of mine or anyone else's that I have treated that had a moldy saline implant. To guarantee that this does not happen, all your surgeon needs to do is fill the implant directly from a sterile IV bag of saline without contact to anything external. I suppose in rare instances the IV bag could be contaminated before use but the chances are pretty slim.

How often do we see moldy bresat implants?

I have been in practice for 18 years and I have never seen mold in any saline implants. I do between 100-150 implants per year so I am sure that this is rare. I always use a closed system when doing saline implants.

Moldy implants are extremely rare

In 30 years of practice I have seen this only once. I usually do between 150=200 pair of implants per year so that is surely uncommon. Make sure your surgeon uses a closed system to fill your implants at the time of surgery so that it should not happen at all.