Imaging of breast implants: Main complications

As the incidence of breast implants is increasing and the maximum duration of wear of these implants is constantly being postponed by patients, the radiologist is led in his daily practice to encounter cases of suspected prosthetic complications. Following the "PIP (R) implants affair" in 2010 and the discovery of repeated cases of large cell anaplastic lymphoma linked to implants, which led the French Agency for the Safety of Drugs and Medical Devices (ANSM) to withdraw macrotextured implants from the market in 2019, the patient's concern can quickly reach its peak. An efficient radiological examination is therefore the key to this sur-veillance, thus avoiding false negatives but also false positives. The main complication of breast implants is rupture. Prosthesis ruptures can be intra-or extracapsular. The radiological semiology of the different complications is rich and varied in the different examination modalities. Other rarer complications can also be observed such as seromas, haematomas, malpositioning, capsulitis and tumour complications. The aim of this article is to clarify the differences between these different complications and to show some typical images. (c) 2023 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.