Technical Notes and Tips: Methylene Blue Dye Aids Postoperative Inflation of Breast Tissue Expanders

Abstract

The Becker Adjustable Breast Implant (Mentor; Santa Barbara, CA, USA) for breast augmentation has an inner lumen for saline allowing serial tissue expansion, and an outer lumen of silicone gel. The port is tunnelled beneath the skin, but can be difficult to orientate a needle into correctly, especially in the larger patient. We use 5 ml of methylene blue dye added to the volume of saline prior to peri-operative infiltration of the implant. In the clinic, this allows a visible aspiration into a butterfly needle and syringe (Fig. 1), confirming rapidly that the needle is correctly sited within the port, and that expansion or deflation can proceed. Figure 1 Aspiration of blue dye rapidly confirms correct positioning of the needle into the port for expansion.