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Published on: August 11, 2018
Breast Textured Implants Determine Early T-helper Impairment: BIAL2.20 Study
Gianluca Vanni1, Marco Materazzo2, Marco Pellicciaro1
1Breast Unit, Department of Surgical Science, Policlinico Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy.
Background/Aim:
Surgical stress has been correlated with higher rate of postoperative complications. Breast implants' surfaces (textured or smooth) represent an immunological stimulus. Our prospective study (BIAL2.20) evaluated post-operative leukocytes response at baseline and postoperative day (POD) 1 and 2 after implant-based breast reconstruction.
Patients And Methods:
Between January and July 2020, 41 patients underwent reconstruction with textured (n=23) or smooth (n=18) implants. A full blood count and lymphocyte subsets were collected before surgery, on POD1 and POD2. Data were evaluated as difference and relative difference from baseline by two-way analysis of variance test (2-way-ANOVA). Mann-Whitney U-test was performed at each POD, whenever between-group 2-way-ANOVA reached statistical significance.
Results:
Within-group-analysis showed statistically significant total leukocytosis in both groups. Within-group-analysis of lymphocytes subsets demonstrated statistically significant lymphopenia in the textured group for T-lymphocytes, and T-helper cells. Between-group-analysis showed statistically significant lymphopenia in T-helper subsets in the textured group at POD1 and POD2, when compared with the smooth group.
Conclusion:
Textured implants demonstrated a statistically significant impairment of T-helper trend during POD1 and POD2 when compared to smooth implants by between-group 2-way-ANOVA.

