A ^Retired Plastic Surgeon's Notebook

I see many, many women for implant removal after years of being unhappy with their breast implants.  Many of these ladies consulted a plastic surgeon for sagging of the breasts and instead of ending up with a breast lift, ended up with breast implants.  Often the explanation for this is that the patient did notContinue reading…

If you have not read my initial post on Breast Implant Illness, I recommend you do so now.  In fact, I implore you to read it.  Here’s the link.  https://www.sowdermd.com/blog/breast-implant-illness/. I belong to a few physician only message boards and breast implant illness has been a hot topic in the past few months.  It isContinue reading…

MRI is the best test for detecting implant rupture (other than surgery) with a very high accuracy rate, much higher and mammogram, ultra sound or physical exam.  I think it is prudent for patients with gel implants, say 10 years old or older to get an MRI to make sure there is not a silentContinue reading…

I was doing some office spring cleaning the other day and came across two file boxes of patient charts from a breast implant study I participated in years ago. The study was the McGahn Silicone Breast Implant Adjuvant Study which was being conducted to gather information about the efficacy and safety of silicone gel breastContinue reading…

I came across a post on the Breast Implant Illness Instagram site recently that really made me really cranky.  And it made me want to holler, “STOP THE FEAR MONGERING!” Let me walk you through this image.  Obviously it is a lady and in the upper left corner you can see her breasts which haveContinue reading…

I have had a lot of questions lately about mold and fungus in saline implants. I have even read online that some people think intact sterile saline breast implants can somehow get filled with germs.  When I read stuff like that my thoughts go to the great French Scientist Louis Pasteur and your thoughts should too.   Pasteur contributedContinue reading…

Updated June 27, 2107 Breast Implant Associated Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma first crossed my radar screen in 2011.  At that time, there were 34 reported cases out of an estimated 10 million implant patients worldwide.  Recent reports indicate that this really weird and poorly understood disease may still be very rare but not as rare asContinue reading…

Warning:  This is a long one.  A really, really long one. I recently counted up all of my operations for 2016 and I removed more breast implants than I put in.  Last year I removed implants from 44 women. Twenty-seven of those women had removal for the usual reasons:  “I don’t like them anymore, they make me lookContinue reading…

Calcified breast implant capsules can make a breast rock hard. I recently removed  32 year old breast implants from a lovely lady in her mid 60’s.  She was embarrassed how the implants felt when she hugged someone.  “It’s like having two rocks in my bra.”  Here is the reason her breasts felt like rocks. TheContinue reading…

The Ideal Breast I just read an interesting review of an article published in the Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery about the ideal breast.   Here’s the link. If you don’t want to read the review, I will summarize.  A bajillion individuals which included men and women of various ages and nationalities were asked toContinue reading…