Intraoperative Risk of Aerial Contamination of Breast Prosthesis During Augmentation Mammoplasty

The augmentation mammoplasty with prosthesis implantation is the most frequent aesthetic surgical intervention. One of the most frequent complications associated to this surgery is the bacteriological contamination of the implants. In order to avoid it, different protocols like the 14-points have been proposed. One of the measures included is the avoidance of the aerial exposure of the prosthesis before implantation. However, the risk of contamination without direct contact has not been well-established. Our aim has been to evaluate the risk of aerial contamination breast prostheses during the surgical procedure. During the course of the surgery of augmentation mammoplasty with prosthesis implantation, we rubbed a hyssop over the prosthesis before the full unwrapping; these samples were used as the control group. Afterwards, the prostheses were irrigated with either saline serum or povidone-iodine and exposed to air in the operating room. New samples were taken with a hyssop after 2 and 5 min. All these samples were cultured in the microbiology lab. In total, 36 prostheses, microtexturized and smooth ones, were analyzed. All microbiological cultures were negative at 0′, 2′, and 5′, regardless of the implant texture and the irrigation fluid used. There is no microbial contamination of the breast implants during the course of the surgical intervention preimplantation due to aerial exposure, and there might be therefore other different sources of prosthesis contamination.