Purpose
Prior to the 1960s, diving was essentially a sport dominated by the male population. But the diving world was changing and the appearance offemale divers was probably one of the most significant factors in achieving this poster.Nowadays about one in three of the current trainees is a women.More and more women have breast implants, used for cosmetic augmentation of the normal breast size and shape of reconstruction, particularly after radical breast surgery for cancer.Obviously any implant that has gas spaces would enlarge or contract with...
Methods and Materials
6 new implants from 2 different manufacturers and 2 removed implants were submitted for 68 simulated dives in a hyperbaric chamber, with an average of 3 dives a day and with a maximal depth of 18 m.A standard X-ray and MRI were performed before, after 11 and 24 days of repetitive diving, and 43 days after the experiment. MRI was performed using a 1,5-T superconductive magnet ( Symphony-, SiemensAG, Erlangen, Germany) with a body and spine coil, and a gradient echo T1-W sequence (3D FLASH),...
Results
There were no significant changes in form, nor in shell integrity. After 11 days of repetitive diving, there were some tiny bubbles in the implants, confirmed by X-ray and MRI. After 24 days, there were significant bubbles in 4 of the implants (increase in implant volume up to 16 %); in the other 4 there was a slight increase in number and volume of bubbles. There was no significant change in the bubbles 43 days after the last dive.See table: volume of the implants (cm)and...
Conclusion
The significant bubble formation in some single-lumen silicone gel-filled implants after 24 days of repetitive diving, was not enough to cause rupture of the implants.Nevertheless it raises concern about the influence of repetitive stress on the lifespan of implants in correlation with the number and depth of dives.
References
Grippaudo FR, Minasi P, Rocco M, Bruno A, Saracca E, Muratori L.Mammary implants: laboratory simulation of recreational diving conditions.Br J Plast Surg. 2002 Mar; 55(2): 120-3.
Personal Information
I. Verslegers, MD, Department of RadiologyS. Van Poucke, MD, Department of Hyperbaric MedicinB. Stockman, MD, Department of Cardiac SurgeryPM Parizel, MD, PhD, Head of Department of RadiologyUniversity of Antwerp, Universitair Ziekenhuis Antwerpen