What Causes the Mold Found in Saline Implants?

No one knows for sure but the hypothesis is that it comes from the air when implants are placed or filled and therefore closed systems are recommended to decrease this potential source

To be honest, I have never encountered mold on or in an implant that has been removed from a patient, even ones that have been inside for over 20 years.  I am not sure how this would even happen, and I doubt the claims of women who say that they were made sick from such a thing.  This would imply that somehow they got mold into their system, or it was put into the implant itself.  Everyone uses sterile saline in the implants ( or should be), so it should not be able to grow any mold out of it or the implants themselves.  I always caution people to be careful with what they hear and/or read about diseases related to the implants.  There are so many myths out there that it can be hard to know what is real and what is not.

I have never seen mold in any implant removal that I have performed or any infection that I have treated.  But it has been reported.

Regarding :''I have heard several ladies say that they had been sick due to the mold exposure found on, or in the saline implants. Is this due to the ps not using sterile water? What causes this, and how can I prevent this?" 

Your question refers to press blitz from a few years ago. Never since repeated. There has been a surgeon in the Atlanta area who made it a cause celebre but whose experienced has NOT been matched by any other Plastic surgeon I know.

In all my years of plastic Surgery I have never seen nor heard of a single patient that I operated on or who my friends or colleagues operated on who grew mold in their breast implants. This experience covers thousands of women.

Think about it. for mold to grow it needs oxygen and nutrition (IE sugar). The vast majority fill saline implants with closed systems not open to air. Even IF a mold on the ceiling of the OR happened to enter into the STERILE salt water (IE Saline) that was injected into the implant, WHAT would this mold live on? In a short while there will NOT be a level of oxygen in the salt water that would sustain life and Saline does not contain sugar. So HOW can anything grow inside saline breast implants? If it does, it is a rare occurrence.

Sometimes notoriety is good for business.

Only one fourth of the population will become ill with a mold contamination due to genetic factors.  In my experience removing defective saline implants with mold either around or in the implant, the usual exposure occurs after an environmental exposure such as mold in the house after a water intrusion problem, mold in the work place (common for teachers and real estate agents), and mold in the car.  I have also seen mold from scuba diving equipment exposure and mold from food ingestion followed shortly thereafter with symptoms in the chest wall as well as systemic biotoxin symptoms.  It is true that mold in the AC system in some surgery centers as well as not using a closed sterile saline system can introduce mold at the time of surgery.  I have treated over 1000 patients with this problem and other plastic surgeons in general do not understand this disease.  Treatment is total capsulectomy, several months of rotating antifungals, and biotoxin detox as well as immune and endocrine support and treatment of any other co infections which may occur due to a T cell immune problem.  One patient had anaphylactic reactions when hugged and she had Penicillium mold in her implants and was allergic to penicillin.  Mold spores enter the body, usually via the respiratory system and can travel via the blood stream to any foreign body.  Saline implants are especially problematic as there can be a valve defect with tissue allowing the mold spores to reproduce inside the saline.  Women usually report the within a month of explantation, they see mold growing on the inside of the implant.  Tests right away may be negative as this is a contamination and can be difficult to grow out in the lab.  I have confirmed with prominent mycologists that testing right away may be negative.  Mold on the outside of the implant usually will be washed off during surgery.  It does not take much mold to produce the biotoxin in some patients so that they develop fibromyalgia, as well as a neurological, endocrine, and immune problems due to the biotoxin which is a neurotoxin.  Plastic surgeons like to say that they do not "see" mold but I ask them how they "see"  bacteria?   Most have no idea that mold biotoxin disease exists as it is politically incorrect.  Most patients with this problem need antifungals to recover as surgery alone is not sufficient as mold produces spores that live in the scar tissue in the chest wall.