We will need to rely on research and innovation to improve our understanding of the relationship between bacterial biofilms and breast implants. Clinical trials will be important. These do need to be prospective, randomized designs in order to get the highest quality data. These will also need to be very well controlled, especially to control for the numerous variables that can impact bacterial contamination and infection. In addition to this, we need better diagnostics. Diagnostics that can pick up bacteria that are not just planktonic, but also biofilms, but also diagnostics that can help differentiate between a commensal bacteria and a potential pathogen. In addition to this, it would be nice to have improvements in the types of breast implants that are available. Devices that can still maintain positional stability, but also that minimize harboring bacteria on their surfaces, whether that be through modulating electrostatics, the extracellular matrix proteins that can coat these devices, novel texturing as well. We also can't forget that autologous tissue may, in many cases, be a better option than a breast implant to avoid infection. And then we also need to leverage precision medicine, meaning we need targeted antibiosis, non-antibiotic therapeutics, and the ability to assess the potential for infection in real time and with the use of biomarkers as well. We need to leverage precision medicine so that we can reduce the risk of infection and treat patients on a case-by-case basis.

breast implant safety

bacterial biofilms

precision medicine

implant design

infection risk