Surgical implications of surface texturing in breast implants

The advent of nanotechnology in material engineering for reconstructive surgery has bridged prosthesis construct with biologic consequence. With breast augmentation, the placement of a foreign prosthesis elicits a host tissue response that varies with each patient. This tissue response is inflammatory in nature, causing an influx of cytokines that affect the capsule developing around the implant. Depending on the nature of the capsule, circumferential contraction can result in a cosmetic deformity (spherical implant shape) and oftentimes, pain. Various texturing techniques have improved capsular contracture rates. Further research on surface coating with specific proteins to affect host cell response can be applied for cancer detection, implant rupture detection, and infection prevention. The ability to apply nanotechnology and materials engineering to modulate the cellular response has led to an abundance of possibilities. Specifically, surface texturing of implants has directly influenced the maturation of implant engineering and implant nanotechnology.