Complications

[Amy49]

I am considering getting saline implants. I'm allergic to tree nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, erythromiacin, and iodine.  What are the chances of me being allergic to the silicone shell implant?  Also, if an allerigic reaction happened what would be the symtons?  Would severe anaphylasis happen?

[Howard Rosenberg, MD]

The silicone shell of saline implants is quite non-reactive.  The most common reaction to implants is formation of excess scar tissue around the implant producing capsule contracture.  It is not clear if the formation of excess scar tissue is the result of an allergic reaction, although current hypotheses include subclinical infection.  A post-surgical bleed is a well recognized cause.It is not possible to predict if this will happen if you undergo augmentation.  Your other allergies do not preclude you from undergoing this procedure.

[michell0012]

Production of the immunoglobulin IgE is a potential cause of major illness (and even death) in man, but has persisted over the ages, probably because it provides a potent defence against parasitic infestation. Anaphylaxis is a term coined by Richet and Portier in 1902 as a direct challenge to the prevailing dogma that the immune system was always a good thing which guarded against attack (phylaxis). Asked by Prince Albert the First of Monaco to investigate the toxicity of jellyfish stings, they showed that repeated challenge with minuscule amounts of antigen, far from guarding against disease, sometimes induces life-threatening reactions.