Media Hype: Exploding Implants
October 15th, 2009
Most normal physical activities do not break breast implants. However, extreme high speed sporting accidents can exert excess pressure, resulting in implant failure. This is a very rare occurence. More commonly the accident just breaks the scar tissue around the implant. The recent report of a woman breaking her implant while doing a stunt for reality TV proves this point. Warning – this video clip contains harsh language. I think she just broke the scar tissue as it is impossible to tell immediately if the implant broke. Her response is to the change in her breast which was hard before the fall and became softer after the impact. Breaking the scar tissue from the outside is called closed capsulotomy.
I know I have mentioned it before, but all breast implants break or fail eventually. This is no surprise, as all man made implant eventually fail. Why? Because stresses are repeatedly placed on the materials which lead to stress fatigue. Take a piece of wire and bend it back and forth many times. You will first notice the wire becomes warm in the area that it is bending. Keep bending it back and forth and it will eventually break. This is the same process which goes on in the body. Whether it is a heart valve, hip implant, pace maker or breast implant, this process continually goes on within the body and it eventually fails.
Of course, the length of time that it takes for an implant failure to occur is variable. The length of time that an implant lasts, is inversely related to the focus of the stress. In the specific case of breast implants, they can develop a crease or fold once they are implanted. This crease (like the wire) if it persists will result in implant failure. Obviously localized stresses decrease the life expectancy of an implant. I generally tell patients breast implant failure is rare within ten years, but starts to increase between ten to twenty years after surgery.
The implications of various types of broken implant does varies. Heart valves and pace maker failures can lead to serious or fatal consequences. Joint replacement failures usually result in pain and a decreased ability to use the involved limb until corrective surgery is done. Fortunately, breast implant failure does not lead to any immediate functional problems. Saline implants, to their advantage, result only in possible embarrassment when they deflate. They also might interfere with mammograms more than when they are fully inflated. Implants filled with silicone gel will eventually lead to changes in the natural scar tissue around the implant when they break. These changes show up as firmness, tightness, tenderness, swelling, changes in breast shape or hard lump adjacent to the implant. Silicone gel can become extravasated into the surrounding breast tissue in the extreme cases. For these reasons, the FDA recommends patients with silicone gel implants undergo MRI studies every other year after surgery, in an effort to detect silicone gel implant failure early. Early detection allows corrective surgery to be carried out before these clinical changes occur.
One other caveat needs to be mentioned. I hope it is obvious to everyone that when the breast is penetrated with a needle or scalpel during surgery, the implant can be damaged or broken. I have seen this on two occasions. Fortunately both implants were saline implants. Simply replacing the implants in these cases was all that was necessary. Silicone gel implants damaged in this way might have required more surgery and they may have left the patient with mammogram changes.
Finally, mammograms should never be avoided for fear of breaking a breast implant. Even though considerable pressure seems to be applied to the breast implant, it is very, very difficult to actually break an implant in this way. It happens only very rarely.
Too Much of a Good Thing – Freak Show
September 30th, 2009
There used to be over 100 freak shows touring with fairs and circuses across America. For P.T. Barnum, it was big business.
http://freaks.monstrous.com/freak_show.html describes the history of the freak show exhibition and features an unusual poem in which it the so eloquently described by Wordsworth:
“All moveables of wonder, from all parts,
Are here–Albinos, painted Indians, Dwarfs,
The Horse of knowledge, and the learned Pig,
The Stone-eater, the man that swallows fire,
Giants, Ventriloquists, the Invisible Girl,
The Bust that speaks and moves its goggling eyes,
The Wax-work, Clock-work, all the marvellous craft
Of modern Merlins, Wild Beasts, Puppet-shows,
All out-o’-the-way, far-fetched, perverted things,
All freaks of nature, all Promethean thoughts
Of man, his dulness, madness, and their feats
All jumbled up together, to compose
A Parliament of Monsters. Tents and Booths
Meanwhile, as if the whole were one vast mill,
Are vomiting, receiving on all sides,
Men, Women, three-years’ Children, Babes in arms.”
The freak show or side show used to be one of the main attractions at county fairs and circuses across America. People would flock to all manner of human and animal oddities. These freaks of nature perhaps underscored awareness for the “normal” observers to be more mindful and thankful for their good health and normal physical form. With the advent of political correctness and realization of human exploitation, freak shows had all but disappeared from our culture by the 1970’s.
Or have they? The clamor to see and often times, even pay to see personalities who have had excessive cosmetic surgery and/or body modification. I believe this represents a persistent desire to see such oddities. Pop culture and mass media obsesses with who has had what and what the result looks like. Photos of celebrities snapped right after cosmetic surgery fetch handsome rewards for the press. When I would see the late Michael Jackson, I would try to examine his face just trying to figure out what else he had done. It is culturally acceptable for us to look at physical oddities when people have done it on their own accord. Think back to Britney Spears shaving her head in a Los Angeles salon. Is this really news?
The popularity of reality television is also part of this trend. We seem to have an attraction to see physical distortion and bizarre human interactions, we watch and we wait for the emotional train wreck.
We have traded the freaks of nature for the freaks created and celebrated by the media. There has been a distinct move toward commodification of celebrity. However, today nobody is standing outside the tent selling tickets in exchange for a peek!
Follow Us!
