Background: The use of textured breast implants over smooth implants has been widely shown to have a lower incidence of capsular contracture. However, the impact of micropatterning techniques on the incidence of postoperative patient morbidity has not been comprehensively investigated.
Objectives: The authors sought to examine the incidence of capsular contracture, seroma, and implant rippling among the 3 major micropatterning techniques applied in the manufacturing of textured breast implants.
Methods: Literature searches of PubMed/Medline and Embase between 1995 and 2017 were performed, and 19 studies were selected for analysis. Data from each study were extracted into a form including mean age, study design, population size, mean follow-up, number of capsular contracture cases, number of seroma cases, and number of rippling cases. Meta-analysis was performed separately for studies that included capsular contracture rates for foam textured implants, imprinted textured implants, and salt-loss textured implants.
Results: The pooled rate of capsular contracture rates in primary augmentation patients was 3.80% (95% CI, 2.19-5.40) for imprinted textured implants, 4.90% (95% CI, 3.16-6.64) for foam textured implants, 5.27% (95% CI, 3.22-7.31) for salt-loss textured implants, and 15.56% (95% CI, 13.31-18.16) for smooth implants. The results of each meta-analysis were summarized on a forest plot depicting the distribution of capsular contracture rates from each study.
Conclusions: Micropatterning of prosthetic implants could drastically reduce postoperative patient morbidity given the advent of recent technologies that allow for more detailed texturing of implant surfaces.
© 2018 The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, Inc. Reprints and permission: journals.permissions@oup.com.