The Valsalva maneuver was originally developed by an Italian doctor as a way to open stopped-up ears. It involves trying to forcibly exhale while holding your mouth and nostrils shut, or against a closed glottis. The move is used in some techniques for diagnosing heart problems, and is done more or less involuntarily by people lifting weights, or just going to the toilet.
In the news this morning is the story of a woman who was performing a Vasalva maneuver as part of her Pilates regimen and lost a breast implant!
A woman has revealed a freak occurrence in which her breast implant was swallowed by her body during a Pilates exercise.
A 59-year-old woman, whose breasts were removed after a double mastectomy to treat her breast cancer, had received breast implants after her surgery.
The cancer survivor was performing a Pilates stretching exercise known as a Valsalva maneuver when she claims her "body swallowed one of the implants," according to the account published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Cosmetic surgeon Dr. Anthony Youn, who did not treat the woman, explained how the "freak occurrence" most likely happened.
"What likely happened in this instance is that the breast implant was placed under the chest muscle and on top of the ribs, an extremely common practice in breast reconstruction," Youn said.
"When the patient Valsalva'd, the pectoralis [chest] muscle likely contracted and pushed the implant through the space between her ribs. The weakened scar tissue (from a previous heart surgery) was easily torn, and the strength of the pectoralis muscle pushed the implant deep into her chest."
The woman was treated at Baltimore's John Hopkins hospital and did not report any pain. Surgeons successfully retrieved the implant and returned to its rightful place.
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