40% of Women with Breast Implants Want them Out: Survey

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40% of women with breast implants want them out: survey

Sharon Kirkey CanWest News Service

Wednesday, October 29, 2003

 

Forty per cent of women who responded to a Canadian survey of breast

implant patients, asked to have their implants removed because of

complications -- a figure that surprised even the researchers.

 

Women who had breast implants were also more likely to visit doctors

and specialists and were four times more likely to be hospitalized

than women without the devices, the study found.

 

It is estimated that up to 200,000 women in Canada have breast

implants. About 80% are performed for cosmetic augmentation, the

remainder for reconstruction following breast-cancer surgery.

 

" This [cosmetic breast surgery] is a privately funded intervention --

women pay for it initially -- but when there are complications,

it's the public system that bears the brunt of the financial

burden, " says Aleina Tweed, a surveillance epidemiologist with the

B.C. Centre for Disease Control and lead author of the study, which

was supported by the British Columbia Centre of Excellence for

Women's Health.

 

Dr. Tweed stressed the study does not prove a cause-and-effect link.

" This wasn't a study to lead us to say that because women got breast

implants, they got sick, or they had problems. But, there is

obviously something going on that is affecting their health, or

women whose health does not support having a breast implant are

still being given them. "

 

The study comes as critics brace for the possible return of

silicone-gel filled breast implants to the open market in Canada,

and at a time when breast implants appear to be more popular than

ever.

 

Two weeks ago, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel

voted in favour of lifting a ban on silicone-gel breast implants.

 

The controversial devices were pulled from the market in the United

States and Canada in 1992, following reports linking them to

arthritis, vascular disease and a range of autoimmune disorders.

Currently, the implants are available in Canada only through the

government's special access program, but at least one manufacturer

is seeking Health Canada approval to make its implants widely

available.

 

" We're very concerned because we know Health Canada pays attention

to what goes on at the FDA, " says Kathleen O'Grady, of the Canadian

Women's Health Network.

 

The B.C. researchers are calling on Health Canada to create a

national breast implant registry to track the long-term health risks

of the surgery and to more quickly alert women to potentially faulty

devices. Several countries, including the United States and the

U.K., have such registries.

 

Dr. Tweed checked the health records of 147 consenting women in B.C.

who had breast implant surgery using either a saline or silicone-gel

implant. Almost two-thirds had silicone-gel implants as their first

set of implants.

 

The women were compared with 583 women in B.C. whose anonymous

health records were chosen at random and who were believed not to

have had implants.

 

Dr. Tweed found women with breast implants were about four times

more likely to be admitted to hospital over the 11-year study

period, and significantly more likely to see doctors, chiropractors,

massage therapists, anesthesiologists and other specialists.

 

Women with implants were more likely to be ospitalized " electively, "

as compared with an urgent or emergency case, and they were more

likely to see general and plastic surgeons when they went into

hospital. For example, 21% of the women with implants saw a plastic

surgeon, versus 2% for women without implants.

 

Of the breast-implant group, 92 women agreed to answer questions

about their experience. Half reported having one additional breast-

implant related surgery; 23% had two; 28% had three or more. Thirty-

seven of the women, or 40%, had their implants permanently removed.

 

" It's an astonishingly high number, " Dr. Tweed says.

 

Scar capsules can form around breast implants, which can cause

breast hardness and pain. Implants can also deflate, rupture or leak.

There were no significant differences in hospitalizations between

the women who had saline implants and those with gel-filled implants.

 

Most of the women who completed the questionnaires rated their

health as " excellent " or " good " compared with other women their age.

 

However, half had been diagnosed with at least one chronic illness,

and one-third " felt that they had lost or quit their job or reduced

their hours because of health problems, " the study says. Most said

the problems started after they got their breast implants.

 

Ottawa plastic surgeon Dr. Bryan Callaghan, who has been in practice

for more than 20 years, says it is " very uncommon " for cosmetic

surgery patients to have their implants removed. " It's an extremely

small number. "

 

He also noted that, during the " silicone-gel phobia " in the early

1990s, many women had their silicone implants replaced with saline

ones, " largely for peace of mind. "

 

© Copyright 2003 National Post

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