Chest Wall Lipogranuloma after Hydrogel Implant Rupture: Case Report

Hydrogel implants became alternative fillers for breast implants after silicone implants were restricted in 1992 due to various local complications (1). Hydrogel implants contain hydrogel fillers, which are organic polymers of polysaccharide and water, such as hyaluronic acid fluid, hydroxypropyl cellulose (polysaccharide), and polyacrylamide (2). Initially, this implant was highly favored due to its improved radiolucency and biocompatibility, however, it was also banned in 2000 due to various complications such as ruptures, leakage of the osmotic hydrogel filler from the implant into the surrounding capsule without rupture (3), breast implant swelling or fluid collection due to osmotic instability (4) or fibrotic and inflammatory changes in adjacent tissues due to spilled implant materials (1, 2). A few cases of foreign body reaction due to hydrogel leakage were reported (2-4). To the best of our knowledge, there is no report of chest wall lipogranulomas caused by hydrogel implant rupture. We report the imaging and pathologic findings of chest wall lipogranuloma after hydrogel implant rupture that developed 17 years after This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Received: June 16, 2015 Revised: June 22, 2015 Accepted: June 23, 2015