Ezat Hashim, MD

Surgical infections can occur with any surgery, and they are not exclusive to breast implants: it can happen with orthopedic, cardiac and any type of surgery.

Generally, the implant becomes contaminated AT THE TIME OF SURGERY. The contaminated implant can rest peacefully for months to years before any overt signs of infection manifest.

Once an implant is infected, it is obligatory to remove it and wait for 6 months or so before putting a new one in its place. This allows the body to 'clean up' the infected breast tissue before adding the replacement implant.

Having said all this, I should emphasize that implant infections are EXTREMELY rare. I have had one infection in 15 years, and in this case the patient neglected to take her antibiotics.

I hope this helps!

Your breast has an associated natural width. If you measure the distance from where the ribs connect to the sternum, to where the ribs start to curve under the arms laterally, this is the measurement to take. We could call this the 'breast base' measure.

It would be ill-advised to try to fit a huge implant on a small base. The implant should rest comfortably on the breast base, otherwise any implant that overshoots the base under the arm will just 'float in the air' and curl and wrinkle.

In the end, your breast base is the determinant of the best size of implant. I hope this helps!