Treatment of Complications After Minimally Invasive Breast Augmentation with Aquafilling Gel

Abstract

Introduction: Recent studies have revealed that Aquafilling gel used for breast augmentation causes complications. In this study, we investigated which surgical approach should be used to treat these complications.

Materials and methods: This observational cohort study analysed the data of 31 women suffering from complications after breast enlargement with Aquafilling injection who were treated at our department in 2016-2021. Patients underwent either conservative or radical surgery. GraphPad Prism 9 (GraphPad Software, La Jolla, CA, USA) was used for data processing.

Results: Approximately 88.89% of patients after conservative surgery required reoperation, while only 22.73% of patients treated radically needed revision surgery. Every patient who underwent an attempt to remove the gel via needle prior to admission required surgery. Seventy-five per cent of them had positive culture swabs, whereas only 26.09% of patients who did not undergo needle aspiration had positive cultures. A positive correlation between the volume of injected filler and the number of symptoms was observed.

Conclusions: In addition to irrigation and drainage, Aquafilling removal should include infiltrated tissue excision during primary surgery. Moreover, needle aspiration of the filler is ineffective, and it may lead to a gel infection. Furthermore, the more filler is injected, the higher the number of complications observed. Level of Evidence IV This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Keywords: Aquafilling filler; Breast augmentation; Complications.