How Much Pressure Can Saline Breast Implants Withstand?

Hello! Thank you for your question! Altitude and pressure have no effect on breast implants, whether saline or silicone. It is safe to travel by air within pressurized cabins or even scuba dive without concern. No further precautions should be taken during these activities. Certainly, discuss any concerns with your surgeon prior. In the same manner, blunt force will unlikely cause rupture. Repeated trauma from the folding if the implant over time is known to be associated with rupture. Obviously, penetrating trauma from sharp objects will also result in rupture. Both saline and silicone implants are very durable and daily activities will not cause any increased risk to the integrity of the implant. Hope that thus helps. Best wishes!

Saline implants are remarkably durable. I have punctured them with a needle and this still do nto deflate unless squeezed. Repeated folding may cause them to rupture inthe the same way a wire hanger will break when repeatedly folded. If you were to participate in rough sex everyday perhaps your implants would rupture earlier than a person who did not do so. However, they can withstand signifcant amounts of pressure, I can stand on them with a shoe and my full body weight and they have remained intact.

Breast implants (both companies Allergan and Mentor) makes extremely good implants with durable silicone elastomer shells.  I have met and even worked with the biomedical engineers involved in testing and production of the implants.  When the "test" each implant they fill them up to something at least as large as basketballs even for very small implant sizes to test the "burst strength".  At some point they will rupture but it is like filling a water balloon ten times over... The silicone shells are much stronger than you think.  So as I tell my patients, you are not going to burst your implants from hugging, or activity, or even mild trauma.  I have had a patient with a airbag deploy in a minor accident and her implants were fine.  It is theoretically possible to rupture from pressure, but the most common reason for saline deflation is spontaneous and it just happens in a small degree of patients over time (approximately 1% per year).  I hope this helps!

Sincerely,

James F. Boynton, M.D., F.A.C.S.