Direct injection of paraffin into the breast: mammographic, sonographic, and MRI features of early complications

OBJECTIVE: We present the mammographic, sonographic, and MRI features of the early complications of breast augmentation by direct injection of liquid paraffin. We also examined the imaging features in patients with paraffinoma, a later complication of these injections. CONCLUSION: Early complications of breast augmentation by direct injection of liquid paraffin differ in appearance from paraffinoma, which is a late complication of the same procedure. On mammography, early lesions appear as multiple circumscribed, noncalcified masses in the retroglandular and subpectoral regions. Sonography reveals multiple cystic masses within the breast parenchyma, retroglandular region, ipsilateral axilla, and pectoral muscle. MRI shows parenchymal and retroglandular fluid collections, which are hypointense on T1-weighted images and hyperintense on T2-weighted and fat-suppressed T2-weighted images, that do not enhance.