A comparison of conventional and low-bleed implants in augmentation mammaplasty.

We conducted a double-blind, retrospective comparison between low-bleed and non-low-bleed (conventional) mammary implants because no controlled study has shown a difference in the degree of capsular contracture between the two types of implants. Twenty-five patients had conventional implants and form group A; twenty-eight patients had low-bleed implants and form group B. All patients had submuscular augmentation. The mean Baker score was 1.51 for group A and 1.04 for group B for the entire patient population and 1.65 for group A and 1.07 for group B for patients with more than 1 year of follow-up. For the entire population, 34 percent of group A and 3.6 percent of group B had a Baker score of 2 or greater. For the population with more than 1 year of follow-up, 42 percent of group A and 7 percent of group B had a Baker score of 2 or greater. There was significantly (p less than 0.007) less contracture with the low-bleed implants for the entire population as well as for those patients with greater than 1 year of follow-up (p less than 0.015).