There is an extremely small chance that the pressure placed on the implant by the mammography machine may cause the implants to rupture or break.
A critical part of a mammogram is compression of the breast tissue, which may have you wondering whether your implants are at risk for rupturing during the process. According to a recent review, breast implant rupture during a mammogram is extremely rare.
Researchers found 66 reports that mentioned problems with mammography for women with breast implants. The majority (62.1%) of problems reported were for breast implant rupture that was suspected to occur during mammography.
It occurs because the scar tissue surrounding the implant tightens. It is possible that the pressure of the mammogram could cause the scar tissue to crack.
Mammography has a reported sensitivity of 11–69% for detection of implant rupture. Extracapsular rupture of silicone can be recognized mammographically as dense silicone in breast tissue.
Signs that your silicone implant has ruptured can include changes in breast shape and size, and increasing pain, firmness, and swelling over a period of weeks. Rupture can also cause capsular contracture.
Breast Pain and Tenderness
Regardless of the type of breast implants you have, a rupture will likely cause some tenderness and possibly some pain in your breast. For patients with a saline rupture pain may occur as a result of the loss of shape and the resulting sagging of the breast skin.
Painful or uncomfortable implants can indicate a number of issues that require a breast implant revision, including capsular contracture, damaged lymph nodes, a developing seroma, pinched nerves or poor implant placement. If you have silicone implants, pain may be a sign your implant has ruptured or is leaking.
There is a scar-tissue capsule that surrounds the implant. This capsule can sometimes cause pulling at the muscle or the sensory nerves that can cause pain. It is definitely a good idea to get checked out.
With silicone implants becoming the standard, patients often want to know “How hard is it to rupture a silicone implant?”Modern silicone breast implants rarely rupture. Silicone breast implants can withstand hundreds of pounds of force and pressure.
Capsular contracture is considered one of the most common breast implant rupture causes. It occurs when the skin tissue around the implant hardens and tightens the area around the implant and breast. If the contracture is heavy enough, it can lead the implant to rupture, particularly if the implant is old.
Today's breast implants are extremely durable, and can withstand tremendous amounts of pressure before rupturing: about 175 pounds for saline, and up to 300 or so for silicone gel. This is far more pressure than a mammogram comes even close to applying.
Mammogram compression can cause bruising and has led to the rupture of breast implants, cysts, and blood vessels. Women with dense breasts are often advised to take painkillers or tranquilizers “to endure the procedure more comfortably.” Yet, pain is there for a reason.
HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU GET BREAST IMPLANT CHECKS? The FDA recommends having silicone implants screened via MRI three years after your breast augmentation surgery and every two years after that.
Implant rupture may be detected by physical exam, ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The majority of silicone implant ruptures are clinically undetectable. Symptomatic patients may present with capsular contracture, breast lumps or changes in breast shape.
Some women have complications with breast implants, whether made of silicone or saline. One of the most common causes of pain after breast augmentation surgery is capsular contracture, when scar tissue forms too tightly around implants. Breast pain can also be an indication that one of your implants has ruptured.
This likely results from muscle stiffness and the implants pushing outward as you sleep. Generally, this pain and discomfort subsides quickly. In order to reduce this feeling, wear your surgical support bra at night and very gently massage the implants.
Early signs of capsular contracture may include a firm or tight sensation, pain, or asymmetry. As the condition worsens, you may notice more obvious symptoms, including: Breast pain. Asymmetry.
The most common presenting symptoms are fatigue, brain fog, chronic pain, anxiety, hair loss, and exacerbations of autoimmune, endocrine, and neurological diseases [1].
Breast implants don't last a lifetime. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons recommends that people with breast implants have them removed or replaced every 10 to 15 years. However, your plastic surgeon may not recommend that you have them removed if you haven't had any complications.
Another caution when undergoing mammogram with implants is capsular contracture. Capsular contracture is scar tissue forming around the implant. It is hard tissue and can crack when the breast is compressed during a mammogram.
Nothing is foolproof, but if you squeezed a woman's implants that hard, she would stop you as soon as the pain kicked in, meaning BEFORE the implants ruptured. That said, it is possible to rupture an implant.
Affected patients typically experience some combination of fatigue, myalgia, joint pain, sicca syndrome (dry eyes and mouth), synovitis, rash, alopecia, muscular weakness or lymphadenopathy, and autoantibody formation.
Within two years of having silicone breast implants inserted, women reported experiencing signs and symptoms of connective tissue disease such as increased muscle weakness, fatigue, and muscle and joint pain. These symptoms may explain the chronic pain that is being experienced.
Implant ruptures can cause silicone granulomas (inflammatory reactions to silicone) that are often isolated, but cases of serious systemic disease, even anaplastic large-cell lymphoma, have been described in the literature [1, 2].