MRI of Breast Implant-related Complications

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To assess the usefulness of MRI in the preoperative diagnosis of breast implant-relatedcomplications. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty four breast implants in 17 patients were examined. Eight breasts hada history of repeated surgery due to rupture and in eight others, simultaneous interstitial silicone injection hadbeen performed. MR images of the 34 implants were prospectively analyzed for implant-related complications,without prior clinical information, and the findings were compared with the results of surgery. RESULTS: Theimplant-related complications seen on MRI were infections in three cases, seromas in two, and implant malpositionin two. The linguine sign was seen in eight cases and intraparenchymal silicone in 17. Among the 32 removedimplants, rupture was genuine in ten cases (nine, extracapsular; one, intracapsular). In evaluating the MRfindings of implant rupture, the linguine sign showed 80% sensitivity, 100% specificity and 93.8% accuracy.Intraparenchymal silicon also revealed high sensitivity (90%), but relatively low specificity and accuracy (63.7%and 71.9%, respectively); this was due to the difficulty of differentiating granulomas still present after aprevious rupture from injected silicone material. MRI was useful for visualization of implant migration, thedirect relationship of extended or extruded silicone in extracapsular rupture and the localization of siliconegranulomas, as seen on multiplanar images. The extent of infection was clearly demonstrated on contrast enhancedscan. There was relatively good correlation between the degree of contracture seen on physical examination andthat seen on MRI. CONCLUSION: MRI was an effective and useful method for the preoperative evaluation ofimplant-related complications; degree of contracture was successfully predicted.