PIP Replacement (single Rupture)
Aurora is now part of The Private Clinic, a nationwide group of clinics with over 35 years of experience specialising in Cosmetic Surgery and Skin and a Trust Pilot 5 star rating. For comprehensive information, before and after photos and costs on Implant removal and replacement procedures click here
Our expert Plastic Surgeon Adrian Richards is the Medical Director for The Private Clinic. Clinics are located in Birmingham, Bristol, Buckinghamshire, Glasgow, London Harley Street, Leeds, Manchester and Northampton.
In this video we have a patient, who originally had Hydrogel implants, and had them replaced with PIP implants. During her original surgery she had an areola reduction, but it hasn’t healed very well, with the scar stretching quite badly, so we are going to be performing an areola reduction as well as a PIP replacement during this surgery video.
We begin the video with Mr Richards showing the markings around the nipple and areola areas. He adds more marks with his pen stating these are the areas he will be removing during the procedure. He also tells us what points will be connected back together initially in the stitching back up process. He also adds a mention to the scar for the implants, stating it is quite irregular, with it being thicker on one side. He will remove the whole scar, creating a new one, which should give a more aesthetically pleasing appearance.
The first implant is removed, and looks to be in tact. It is 430cc and shows signs of deflation and gel bleed, along with being very flat, having lost considerable colume. The second implant is removed and shows similarities to the other, with it being flat, and showing deflation and gel bleed also.
At the end of the procedure, we see the end results, with the areolas much smaller, and new scars which look more even and should heal leaving a better appearance than before. Mr Richards then goes on to compare the implants, and notices that the right one, the one removed first is a slightly darker colour than the left. It has a shade of yellow about it, which leads Mr Richards to believe it may have a rupture. He takes a closer inspection, and locates a rupture in its earliest stages we can assume, on the back around the baseplate. We can’t be sure how long this implant was ruptured prior to removal, but with the state of some PIPs we have seen, and the evidence shows how easy it is for a rupture to spread, we can estimate that this rupture was almost certainly less than a month old. PIP implants can rupture at any time, so our patient may have had two perfectly in tact implants during her consultation, but by the time her surgery came around one of them was ruptured. Another warning to all out there with PIPs, they can rupture whenever, and our advice is to get them removed sooner rather than later, and you could also be one of the luckier ones, just like this patient.