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To retain good posture, 400 g breast implants may be cutoff

As heavy breast implants can induce reversible alterations in the spinal curve, researchers determined 400 g is the cutoff for functional physiologic compensation in the short term.

Forty healthy women wore different sized breast implants of 800 g 400 g and 300 g inside a sports bra for 6.5 consecutive hours during everyday activities. Volunteers had 1 day for every implant size.

Researchers found a significant increase in cervical lordosis after the use of 400 g breast implants and upward.

The alteration was stable between 400 g and 800 g breast implants, according to the study.

Researchers said that the 400 g implant might be the load threshold that changes the cervical postural physiologic balance.

After the use of the 800 g implant, a significant increase in lumbar lordosis was found.

In addition, the increase in cervical lordosis was correlated with a corresponding increase of all related subjective symptoms such as neck pain, dorsal pain, low back pain or sense of weight without pain after the use of 400 g breast implants only.

However, the correlation was not found after the use of 800 g implants, which could suggest the recruitment of supplementary muscle power to counterbalance heavier weights.

Although medical literature suggests that breast prostheses do not usually exceed 300 cc, market trends have shown an increasing demand for large breast implants and long term spinal changes are still unknown. – by Abigail Sutton

Disclosure: The researchers reported no relevant financial disclosures.