“The Impact of a “No-Touch” approach on Breast Implant Infection”  

Purpose: Intraoperative contamination of the surgical field during aesthetic breast augmentation may lead to implant infection with devastating consequences. This study covers a period of 29 years and is divided into two phases: a retrospective phase from 1992 to 2004 when a “standard” approach was used and a prospective phase from 2004 to 2021 when a “No-Touch” approach was implemented to prevent implant infections.

Methods: Patients in the “Standard” and “No-Touch” groups underwent aesthetic breast augmentation by the same senior surgeon (FDP) in the same outpatient surgical facility during the 29-year period of the study. Patients are divided into two groups: from 1992 to 2004, and from the implementation of the “No-Touch” protocol in 2004 to 2021.

Results: Patients that underwent breast augmentation using the “No-Touch” approach developed no infections, whereas the “standard” group had an infection rate of 3.54% (p = 0.017).

Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study we strongly recommend the use of the “No-Touch” approach as described in this paper when performing aesthetic breast augmentation with implants.