Breast Implant Removal (Explantation) Options

Posted On: March 06, 2025 Author: The Office of Dr. Stuart Linder Posted In: Breast Revision

4 Minute Read:

I have been writing about breast implant removal surgery for over a decade. There are many reasons for a woman to consider removing her breast implants. 

These reasons include changes to the implants and the breasts over time, the feeling that the implants are too heavy or large for her body, or other health concerns. 

Other reasons for removal:

• Desire to feel healthier
• Wanting to return to your natural bust (implant-free)
• Body changes (weight fluctuations) over time
• Unnatural appearance
• Deformed implants
• Implant complications, including capsular contracture, implant displacement, and rupture
• BIA-ALCL Textured Breast Implant Concern

When considering implant removal, one thing to remember is that the body forms a sac of scar tissue around the implant — this is a natural response to a foreign object in the body.

This scar tissue is known as a capsule. Usually, the capsule is soft and thin; however, in some cases, it can become hard and contract around the implant (capsular contracture).

When you choose to have breast explant surgery, a few options are available, and these should all be discussed during the consultation. 

• The simplest approach is to remove the implants while leaving the scar tissue capsule in place. 
• The second approach is to perform an explant capsulectomy, in which the implants and the scar capsule are removed. 
• A more complex option for removing breast implants is an en bloc capsulectomy, in which the implants and scar capsule are removed intact (in one piece). A total capsulectomy also means removing the entire capsule; however, it is not necessarily removed in one piece.

For more information regarding breast implant removal surgery or to schedule a consultation with Dr. Linder, call us at (310) 275-4513 or contact us via email.

Below are two youtube videos regarding breast implant removal:

Dr. Linder Pre-Op for Breast Implant Removal Surgery With Reduction And Lift

We’re going to mark our patient here. The implant, as you can see, is very high and it’s displaced superiorly. It’s way up here. The question is why the implant migrated up this way. These breast implants have been in for a long time, by a different surgeon. So we’re going to remove them. We’re going to do a breast reduction lift at the same time and put drains in. 

She has no need for an implant any longer. We want to reduce her size and we want to remove this bump, this bubble, which is actually an implant, which isn’t helping us at all. So now we’re going to go ahead and kind of mark out our mastopexy. We really don’t need to position the nipple higher because it’s already high. She’s already bottomed down, which her full distance is really, really long.

It’s probably from here to the fold, about 15 to 17 centimeters, and the normal distance is anywhere between five and eight. So you are really, really, really, really low. So we’ll be removing skin vertically along the fold, and then I’ll be removing some little bit of breast tissue too. Because you’re too wide. They’re a little bit too big for you. So again, we may end up going around the nipple here as well, but we’re not going to be raising that. We’ll be removing the skin, we’ll be removing medial glandular tissue, and we’ll be removing all this lateral tissue. And then through the incision here, we’ll go ahead into the pocket and remove the implant and we’ll put our drain in through the inframammary fold. 

Implant Removal With Capsule

So this is a breast implant removal surgery we just finished. This patient has autoimmune issues and she wanted her silicone breast implant out. This is her left implant, which shows a left rupture (smooth gel rupture). The right one, I don’t see any rupture. These are the capsules. Take a look at this. This is the entire capsule from the left anterior and posterior wall. As you can imagine, put your finger in there, this whole capsule covers this entire implant. That’s the entire capsule on the left. Same thing on the right. The entire capsule including the chest wall. Look at the color of the capsule. It’s a nice whitish color and the entire capsule was taken from both the anterior and posterior. A whole capsule covering the entire implant.