What implants are associated with BIA-ALCL?

Written by Board Certified Plastic Surgeon Nima Naghshineh, MD, FACS on July 8th, 2020.

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Breast implant associated lymphoma or BIA-ALCL is almost exclusively associated with textured implants. A certain brand of textured implants made by Allergan has been shown to have a higher rate of BIA-ALCL, but other textured implants have also been implicated.

How do you know if you have a textured implant?

For one, if you have your implant card that was given to you after you had your implants placed, that will tell you the model of the implant you have. Based off of that, you can get more information on whether it is a textured implant. If you do not have your implant card, your doctor or plastic surgeon that placed the implant should have that on record for up to seven years after the surgery. However, if you do not have your implant card and it’s been more than seven years or you just cannot get that information, there are certain clues about your implant that might tell you if it is textured. For example, if you had “shaped” or “gummy” implants placed there is a good chance that they are textured. “Gummy” is a general term for cohesive implants, but when the term was use the most it was referring to “shaped” implants which are invariably textured. There are round (not shaped) implants that can be textured.