Capsular Contracture: How Does It Affect Your Breast Implants?
Breast augmentation is a very popular plastic surgery procedure with a proven safety record. Like all surgeries, however, it does carry potential risks. One of those risks is capsular contracture.
Capsular contracture is a very real and potentially harmful complication of breast implant surgery that about one in four patients experience after their recovery. If left untreated, it can cause the breasts to become distorted, hard, and even painful. Knowing what this condition is and how it affects your implants is very important if you are contemplating breast augmentation surgery.
What Capsular Contracture Is
When your body detects something inside you that doesn’t normally belong there, it has different reactions. It can attack the foreign object or it can surround the object with a tissue capsule. Breast implants are foreign to your body, so the body typically reacts by creating a capsule of tissue around the implant. Under normal circumstances, the capsule doesn’t affect you or your implants. The capsule doesn’t constrict the implant and your breasts will still look and feel like normal. Essentially, it’s a type of scar tissue that surrounds your breast implant.
Capsular contracture occurs when something causes the capsule to become inflamed. Things like trauma to the implant, bleeding around the implant, bacterial infection, silicone rupture, or some other foreign body near the capsule can cause the inflammation. When the capsule gets inflamed, it starts to harden and thicken around the implant. It also begins to shrink, causing the implant to appear distorted. This condition can even be painful for patients as the capsule tightens around the implant.
Signs of Capsular Contracture
Capsular contracture can manifest in different ways. Some symptoms include an irregular shape of the breast, distortion or puckering, a hard feel to the breast, tightening of the breast, and odd positioning of the implant. There are four grades of capsular contracture using the Baker Scale to gauge the seriousness of the condition.
- Baker Grade I – Your breast has a natural size and shape and is soft to the touch.
- Baker Grade II — Your breast still has a normal appearance and is firm to the touch.
- Baker Grade III — Your breast has an abnormal appearance and is firm to the touch.
- Baker Grade IV — Your breast has an abnormal appearance, feels hard, and is painful to the touch.
Capsular Contracture and Your Implants
Capsular contracture could affect you regardless of the type of implant you have. It doesn’t matter whether you have silicone or saline implants, or whether you have large or small implants. The condition isn’t a result of the type of implant you have, but rather how your body responds to the implant itself.
Despite how it may feel, your implant is not getting hard or tight; the tissue capsule is the only thing that is being changed. The distortion of the tissue capsule around the implant is what causes your breast to look and feel abnormal. The implant itself is actually just fine. Its shape and size are not affected by the tissue capsule changes, but the position of the implant could be affected by the way the capsule tightens.
A concern that patients often have is whether the capsular contracture will cause the implant to rupture. This concern is understandable, but also not necessary. The tissue capsule tightens evenly around the implant, which causes even pressure around it. There isn’t a point of constant and focused pressure on the implant to cause a rupture. The capsule itself can be torn, but the implant remains intact unless it experiences some type of trauma.
Treating Capsular Contracture
There are different ways that capsular contracture can be treated. The two methods used at Spalding Drive Plastic Surgery are the open capsulotomy method and the capsulectomy. The open capsulotomy method involves loosening the capsule without removing the implant. This is used on patients whose implants are still intact and don’t have any leaks or rupture. An incision is made to access the capsule, which is then carefully opened. When the capsule is opened, it expands, much like how space saver bags expand when air gets inside. A new pocket is created for the implant so that it will be in the right position on your chest, then the incisions are closed.
The capsulectomy surgically removes the tissue capsule by removing the implant. This is used primarily on patients who have leaks or ruptures in their implants. The tissue capsule can be removed from the implant, or a new implant can replace the old one instead. Using the new implant is generally a safer choice, because cutting the capsule off the old implant could cause damage to the implant.
After your capsular contracture is treated, the healing will be somewhat similar to what you experienced after the initial breast surgery. The full results of your treatment procedure will not be totally visible for two or three months, but once the swelling and bruising go away, you’ll be able to see the positive change to your breasts.
There is a possibility that capsular contracture could occur again even after the treatment, but this is very rare. Most patients go on to enjoy their breasts fully after the capsular contracture is fixed.
To learn more about Spalding Drive Plastic Surgery and your treatment options for capsular contracture, contact our office at (310) 275-2467 to consult with a doctor or schedule an appointment.