Can Acne Affect Prognosis of Breast Augmentation?

1 Leonidas Pavlidis Georgia A. Spyropoulou Antonis Tsimponis Efterpi Demiri Department of Plastic Surgery Papageorgiou Hospital Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Thessaloniki, Greece Sir, A skin has never been reported as contraindication for surgery. Approximately 290,000 patients underwent an augmentation mammoplasty in 2013, whereas for the same year, the number of implant removals for breast augmentation patients was around 23,700, a 42% reduction since 2000.1 A patient’s response to an implanted medical device cannot always be predicted. According to Tebbetts,2 there are 3 major factors that influence the outcome of a breast implant in its new environment– —the patient’s response to the device, surgery, and wound healing characteristics. Periprosthetic infection and implant extrusion with or without infection comprise the most common reasons for breast implant removal. Infection rates range between 1% and 35%, and exposure rates do not exceed 8%.3 Although implant removal is the traditional treatment to the above complications, there is a trend to attempt prosthesis salvage by incorporating minor surgical and antimicrobial therapies.4 Acne lesions when left untreated may extend deeply, resulting in sinus tracts and tissue destruction. In a much thinner skin, these complicated lesions may lead to overwhelming results especially when an implant is involved.