Presentation and Management of Silicone Lymphadenopathy: A Single Institutional Retrospective Cohort Study

Silicone Lymphadenopathy (SL) is a complication of breast implants that involves migration of silicone to nearby soft tissue/lymph nodes. Data on its clinical features and management is scarce. We aimed to identify the clinical presentation and management of SL.

A single-institution retrospective cohort study was conducted from our institutional imaging system where search terms "Silicone lymphadenopathy", "silicone adenitis" and "silicone adenopathy" were used to identify patients with SL (January 2016-September 2023). Patient demographics, clinical features, imaging findings, pathological investigation, and treatment were obtained from the medical records.

Of 52 patients with SL, breast augmentation accounted for 90.4% of the implant placements. All patients had silicone implants placed at some time. A significant portion of patients (69.3%) were asymptomatic, while 7.7% had non-tender lymphadenopathy, 19.2% experienced painful lymphadenopathy, and 1.9% presented with mixed symptoms. Implant rupture was observed in 88.7% of cases; 13.0% intracapsular, 26.1% extracapsular, 15.2% both, and unknown in 45.7%. Axillary nodes were the most commonly involved (86.5%), and ultrasonography was most commonly used to detect SL (80.7%). Biopsy was performed in 17.3% of cases, confirming benign pathology in all cases. No patients required surgical excision of lymph nodes for management of SL.

Most patients with SL are asymptomatic and are managed with observation. Biopsy and surgical intervention should be reserved for those patients with abnormal imaging or persistent symptoms. Evaluation of lymphadenopathy is essential to exclude malignancy in patients with a history of breast cancer.

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