Ho Chi Minh City20 years after going to China for “artificial fat” injections, a 50-year-old woman was hospitalized with a bulging chest of 115 cm, pain and difficulty breathing. The surgeon removed nearly 5 liters of a mixture of fluid and foreign substances.
On July 27, Dr. Nguyen Phan Tu Dung, professional director of JW Korea Hospital, said that the patient from Tay Ninh was admitted to the hospital with abnormally swollen, swollen, and painful breasts. The chest circumference was so large that the team could not perform an MRI as planned because the patient was not in the correct position in the machine.
According to the patient, about 20 years ago, due to feeling guilty about having a small bust, she went to China to have an injection of a substance introduced as “artificial fat” at a beauty facility, but the exact ingredients were not known, helping her “chest get bigger but to a moderate extent”. In the following years, she did not experience significant complications, so she thought this method was safe. However, in the last two months, both breasts began to feel tight, swollen rapidly, had constant pain, and had difficulty breathing, especially when lying down.
“At first my chest was just a little tight and painful, but then it swelled very quickly and became harder and harder. Every time I lay down I felt like there was a heavy object pressing on my chest. I had to sit up to breathe, so many nights I was almost awake,” the patient said.
The bust looks like it’s glowing on the CT Scan. Image: Hospital provided
Through examination, the doctor noted that the breasts were clearly enlarged, with many areas of hard, lumpy tissue, suspected to have changed after a long time of presence of a foreign substance. The patient was prescribed ultrasound, tests and expected to have an MRI to assess the extent of damage. When this option could not be implemented because the chest was too large, the team was forced to switch to a CT scan to survey the extent of the damage, and blood tests showed an increased number of white blood cells, suggesting inflammation.
Diagnostic images showed multiple outbreaks, fibrous tissue and complex damage structures, requiring emergency surgery. The surgery lasted nearly 5 hours. The doctor opened many damaged cavities, cut out fibrotic tissue, removed foreign substances, aspirated fluid and continuously irrigated. A total of nearly 5 liters of a mixture of fluid, blood and foreign substances were removed from both breasts.
Doctors removed 5 liters of fluid from the patient’s chest. Image: Hospital provided
Huynh Thanh Hoa, a member of the surgical team, said that the biggest difficulty lies not in the amount of fluid but in the fact that the foreign substance exists for too long, causing the tissue to become fibrotic, forming many thick partitions, divided into small “honeycomb”-like compartments. Doctors must treat each cavity to remove as much inflammation as possible while still preserving healthy tissue and limiting blood vessel damage.
After surgery, the patient is placed on a drain to continue monitoring the risk of fluid re-accumulation and infection.
According to Dr. Tu Dung, this case is a warning about beauty injections advertised under names such as “artificial fat”, “biological fat” or “permanent filler” but with unknown ingredients and origin. He said the absence of complications for 10-20 years does not mean the injection is safe. These substances can exist silently in the body, then cause inflammation, infection, fibrosis or migrate to other tissue areas, making subsequent treatment very complicated.
The doctor recommends that people with beauty needs know the ingredients, origin and licensing status of any substance introduced into the body, especially avoiding fillers of unknown origin or liquid silicone that have been banned from use by the Ministry of Health.