Axillary silicone lymphadenopathy secondary to augmentation mammaplasty

We report a case involving a 45-year-old woman, who presented with an axillary mass 10 years after bilateral cosmetic augmentation mammaplasty. A lump was detected in the left axilla, and subsequent mammography and magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated intracapsular rupture of the left breast pros...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Dragoumis Dimitrios, Assimaki Anthoula, Vrizas Triantafyllos, Tsiftsoglou Aris
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Thieme Medical Publishers, Inc. 2010-01-01
Series:Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.ijps.org/article.asp?issn=0970-0358;year=2010;volume=43;issue=2;spage=206;epage=209;aulast=Dragoumis
Description
Summary:We report a case involving a 45-year-old woman, who presented with an axillary mass 10 years after bilateral cosmetic augmentation mammaplasty. A lump was detected in the left axilla, and subsequent mammography and magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated intracapsular rupture of the left breast prosthesis. An excisional biopsy of the left axillary lesion and replacement of the ruptured implant was performed. Histological analysis showed that the axillary lump was lymph nodes containing large amounts of silicone. Silicone lymphadenopathy is an obscure complication of procedures involving the use of silicone. It is thought to occur following the transit of silicone droplets from breast implants to lymph nodes by macrophages and should always be considered as a differential diagnosis in patients in whom silicone prostheses are present.
ISSN:0970-0358
1998-376X