Saline Breast Implants

Saline comes in different shapes, sizes and adjustability.

Slaine Breast Implants

There can be a number of reasons for you to go in for breast augmentation. You may find your breast size too small and want to get them enlarged for personal and aesthetic reasons. There may be a difference in your breast size that you want balanced. You may also resort to it for correcting a reduction in breast volume after pregnancy. In certain cases, it’s also done as a reconstructive technique following breast surgery. Of the several breast implant methods available saline breast augmentation is one of the more popular ones.

Saline breast implant

Saline breast implants come in either round or contoured shapes. Made of silicone, these rubber shells are filled with sterile saline to recreate the more teardrop outline of a mature breast. This is often preferred by those looking for a gently sloping breast silhouette. However, you’ll have a free hand in selecting the best option, in consultation with your physician.

The silicone rubber shell is generally composed of cured large polymeric silicones; small amounts of smaller silicones; finely powdered silica tightly bound to the silicone polymers; minute amounts of metals, like tin, zinc or platinum; a metal catalyst to cause a change in material; and traces of readily evaporating materials called volatiles, like xylene and other organic compounds. The sterile saline filler has to conform to United States Pharmacopeia (USP) standards for Normal Physiological Saline (injection grade).

Types of saline filled implants
There are three types of saline filled implants. Let’s see what they are:

a. Fixed volume implant: In fixed volume implant, the implant is filled with a fixed volume of saline through a valve at the time of implantation. There are no provisions for the adjustments of the saline volume after the operation.

b. Adjustable volume implant: In adjustable volume implant, saline is filled during the operation through a valve. This type of implant allows for adjustments of the saline volume after the operation.

c. Pre-filled implant: As the name suggests, in pre-filled implant, a fixed volume of saline is filled beforehand at the manufacturing stage. No valves are provided for filling during the operation or for adjustments of the saline volume after the operation.

Shaped breast implants

Breast implants come in several shapes and sizes depending upon what you’re aiming at! However, the two popular ones are:

a. Round breast implants: It doesn’t cause any distortion in the shape of the breast and comes in smooth and textured surfaces. Round implants are less expensive than anatomical implants.     

b. Anatomical breast implants: Designed primarily for reconstruction purposes to produce a more natural looking breast, this oval shaped implant has made its way into general breast augmentation. The lower portion of this implant has more volume.

c. Moderate breast implant: This breast implant is wider at the base to accommodate women with wider chest walls. It provides elliptical shape of the mature breast with moderate projection.

d. High breast implant: This shaped breast implant follows the contour of the mature breast but with a high profile. This helps give greater projection and a more prominent silhouette.

Silicone vs. saline breast implant

Let’s see the advantages and disadvantages of saline implants over silicone implants:

a. If a silicone implant ruptures it’s harder to detect, since the silicone gel leaks into the surrounding areas of the breast without a visible difference. The breast looks and feels the same. However, when saline breast implant ruptures, it almost immediately deflates the breast and quite visibly so!

b. Leaking saline breast implant is easier to repair than replacing a ruptured silicone gel implant. Silicone implants also have a higher rate of capsular contracture and a higher deflation rate.

c. Although, saline implants have silicone rubber envelopes, like silicone gel filled implants, FDA believes that saline breast implant risk are lower than silicone implant ones. This is because saline breast implant leakage or rupture would release only salt water into the body.

d. However, where silicone implants score over saline ones is in their texture. Silicone gel’s similarity to the breast tissue gives these implants a more natural look and feel than their saline counterparts.

e. Saline implants are also known to interfere with mammography. Special radiographic techniques need to be implemented for women using these implants in order to minimize interference.

So if you’re considering saline implants, carefully read the saline breast implant info in the patient information sheets, as well as the informed consent form and discuss the risks with your physician before undergoing implant surgery. This may well save you from saline breast implant problems.