Breast Implant Gets Pushed to the Ribs During Pilates Maneuver

An article featured in the New England Journal of Medicine, written by doctors at Johns Hopkins’ University, tell of a 59-year-old female whose breast implants were swallowed by her body at a Pilates session. In addition, the woman just underwent heart surgery, which consequently weakened her ribs.

While in their Pilates’s stretching phase, the woman didn’t experience any shortness of breath or pain. During the Valsalva maneuver, involving a deep breath and deliberately blocking the aerial exits during exhalation, the pressure pushed the implant into the space between her ribs, causing an area of her right anterior chest to bulge. Fortunately, surgeons were able to recover it and place it back in the breast.

According to the surgeons, the incision from her heart procedure — and not the breast reconstruction — caused the implant’s displacement. Although it was only a small opening, the implant was big enough to fall through. The doctors reassured that such an accident wasn’t possible with breast reconstruction alone.

To ensure her safety, the area where the implant fell through had been repaired with mesh.

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