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Breast Implant Illness: Making Sense Of The Symptoms
Brendon K. Luvisa, MD MPH1, Maral Demirjian, MPH
2, Lorna Kwan, MPH
2, Michael R. DeLong, MD
1;
1UCLA Health Division of Plastic Surgery, Los Angeles, CA, USA,
2UCLA Health Department of Urology, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Purpose: Breast Implant Illness (BII) continues to be frequently reported among women with breast implants. The FDA’s Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience (MAUDE) database has provided some narrative data of common symptoms. To reproduce and better characterize various symptom clusters we surveyed women with both saline and silicone implants about having BII and their symptoms.
Methods: A validated patient reported outcome symptom survey (PRO-CTCAE) was sent to groups of women with breast implants. The survey recorded self-reported presence of BII, implant type, and 64 different symptoms. We analyzed the data by breast implant type and grouped symptoms using factor analysis.
Results: 2223 unique participants with breast implants responded, of which 1260 had completed ≥30% of the survey and were included in the analysis. 402 respondents reported having BII. 42.6% (n=162) of respondents who reported having BII had saline implants, while only 31.6% (n=254) of respondents without BII had silicone implants (p=0.0002). Factor analysis revealed 3 symptom groupings: 1. Nervous, muscular, reproductive, endocrine; 2. Oral, digestive, respiratory; 3. Skin, nail.
Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of including patients with saline implants in any investigation of BII and demonstrates that there are reproducible symptom clusters in women reporting BII.
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