What is Your Experience with Medpor Implants?

Question

Yes, I know a foreign implant is your last option. But when your do have to use a Medpor implant, what has been your experience like? The surgeon I'm going to has about 20 years experience using these type of implants and they have been successful.

David Shafer, MD, FACS · Answer

In the USA we have Mentor and Allergan implants.  Both companies make excellent implants and both have thorough evaluation by the FDA for approval for cosmetic use.  My suggestion would be to have your surgeon use the implants that he/she is most familiar using.  

	Good luck with your surgery.

William Portuese, MD · Answer

Our experience with Medpor implants is that they get infected and we do not recommend using them in our practice. We prefer silastic implants for both cheek and chin implants and they are easy to remove. Medpor gets tissue ingrowth and is very difficult to remove when infected.

Steven Wallach, MD · Answer

If you are referring to cheek implants, I do not use them. I feel that I get excellent results with fillers or facelifting techniques. I have used them in orbital floor reconstructions and they are excellent for that indication.

Aaron Stone, MD · Answer

The medpor implant is a porous polyethylene implant made by Porex. It is a rigid implant with multiple small holes so that tissue including blood vessels can grow through it. Like any material it has its own pros and cons. I personally prefer it to goretex or silicone facial implants. They also make implants for ear reconstruction, eye orbit blowout fracture, eyeball prosthesis etc. Even though there are holes for ingrowth that does not mean every implant gets 100% ingrowth through every hole. If there is significant ingrowth though the implants will not shift in position and much more resistant to infection than other implants especially silicone. I most like the ability to heat the implants so they soften. I then mold them to the surface of the underlying bone and once they cool to body temperature the keep the new shape. Because they are rigid this manuever is required to prevent rocking of an implant that does not exactly much the underlying bone contour after surgery. I prefer this to silicone implants which have shape memory and will constantly push out against the overlying skin if they do not exactly match the underlying bone surface contour. This property is more important with chin, jaw and nasal implants than it is with cheek implants.

Scott E. Kasden, MD, FACS · Answer

Respectfully, I don't agree that an implant is your last option.  There are usually several options, and it is prudent to choose the one that it best for the patient in a particular situation.

	I have been using these chin implants for over 10 years.  I have never had a problem with them.  I like them because they can be sculpted, they stay in place, they have very low infection/migration/complication rate.  They are porous so are harder to work with than silicone, but they tend not to cause bone resorption.

	So I don't have anything bad to report about them.

	 

	sek

George J. Beraka, MD (retired) · Answer

Hi.

	You don't say where you are considering implants.

	1)  For the cheekbones, I think implants are basically obsolete because you can get great results with Radiesse filler injections (without surgery).

	2) For the jawline and chin, smooth solid silicone implants are safer.

	3) Medpor implants have an occasional place in the nose.

What is Your Experience with Medpor Implants?

Answers (6)

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