Breast abscess after filler injection

The 108 Military Central Hospital (108 Hospital, Hanoi) recently admitted a female patient TTN (31 years old, from Bac Giang) due to swelling and pain in both breasts, fever, and pain. Doctors discovered that there were many abscesses in the chest area, red and tense breasts, and multiple breast abscesses.

According to the patient, about 1 month before being hospitalized, after seeing an advertisement on social media, the patient decided to use the shock wave service to increase breast volume at a cost of 6 million VND at a spa. During the procedure, the patient was advised to use a more advanced shock wave service for 20 million VND, which could be paid later and in installments. Next, the patient was blindfolded, injected with an unknown type and quantity of filler, and had threads implanted in her chest. The next day, the patient had chest pain, difficulty breathing, and a red rash all over her body, and had to go to the emergency room at a hospital in Bac Giang. 3 days after being discharged from the hospital, the patient returned to the spa to remove the threads, continued to have a rash, chest pain, and was admitted to a local hospital. At this time, the patient was prescribed anti-inflammatory antibiotics for nearly 1 month. However, because the pain in her left breast persisted, the patient went to Hospital 108 for examination.

Here, after examination and testing, the patient was assigned to have surgery to incise the left breast, and the doctors aspirated 40 ml of cloudy yellow fluid. Test results detected staphylococcus aureus bacteria in this fluid.

Risk of mammary gland destruction

According to MSc. Luu Phuong Lan (Department of Plastic and Microsurgery - Hospital 108), the substances injected into this patient are products of unknown origin, whether licensed by the Ministry of Health or the FDA, the injection site is unknown, and the amount of solution injected is unknown, so surgery can only resolve the fluid masses shown on the MRI scan results and through clinical examination. There may still be potential fillers in the glandular parenchyma, although they have not yet caused inflammation and necrosis of the glandular parenchyma. Therefore, the patient is still at risk of breast abscess inflammation and fibrocystic mastitis later on.

Dr. Luu Phuong Lan noted that there have been many cases of mammary gland abscesses after injecting foreign substances into the breast many times after 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, destroying the mammary gland tissue, requiring multiple surgeries, even removing the entire mammary gland tissue.

According to Dr. Lan, recently, the Department of Plastic Surgery and Microsurgery - Hospital 108 has continuously received many cases of complications due to filler injections through advertisements on social networks such as: shock wave injection, autologous fat injection... to increase bust size at some spas and cosmetic facilities. However, these are all unverified advertisements.

Dr. Lan added that when performing breast augmentation at some beauty facilities, the sterilization process during injection is not guaranteed or the injector's skills are weak, leading to the consequence that in some cases, when arriving at the hospital, the chest area is severely necrotic, requiring the entire breast to be removed to save life.

Therefore, to ensure safety, before performing, women need to carefully research information about the method, the facility, the professional experience of the surgeon, etc. Do not perform the procedure when only listening to false advertisements from some untrustworthy beauty facilities or practitioners who are not licensed. If you are experiencing the above problems, or want to change the size of your bust as well as improve your bust defects, you need to go to a reputable medical facility for direct consultation and examination, Dr. Lan recommends.

According to the Hanoi Department of Health, the current breast augmentation techniques can only be performed by doctors with a license to practice cosmetic surgery, and facilities qualified to practice by the Ministry of Health and the Department of Health.