More Factors to Consider

Breast implants may also affect the women’s ability to breast feed. They impel the women’s to produce milk, and in addition they also cause breast problems such as mastitis (breast infection), galactocele (milk-filled tumor), or galactorrhea (sudden milk production by a woman who isn’t pregnant nor has given birth). It’s true that nowadays babies are rarely breast fed; however, I personally would still like to have that option.

As I said before, breasts implants do not last forever and the implantations cannot be undone. Therefore, women must undergo additional surgeries over the course of their life for their breasts will never be the same.

Example 1: Removal without replacement

(http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/breastimplants/breast_implant_risks_brochure.html)

Factor to Consider # 2 : Suicide

Breast implants have often been related to the suicide rate among women. Based on several studies performed, women with breast enhancement surgery differ from women of similar age in the general population in many ways, which may triple the death rate from suicide. Such studies concluded that women with breast implants differ in lifestyle characteristics such as body mass, marital status, as well as medical characteristics. Nevertheless, in an attempt to provide epidemiologic evidence regarding suicide among women with breast implants, the International Epidemiology Institute supported a study which began by identifying women who underwent breast surgery in either private clinics or public hospitals. The conductors of the study followed up for dearth from the day of first breast implant surgery, to the date of emigration, date of death, or end of follow up. The number of deaths observed during the follow up period was then compared to the expected number of deaths; thus giving the standardized mortality ratio. 88 cohort members died, and 15 of them were victims of suicide.

Factor to Consider # 1 : Cancer

There had always been controversies related to breast implants and breast cancer. According to a Dennis Deapen and some his colleagues, breast implants do not cause cancer, neither interfere with cancer’s detection during mammography. In order to corroborate this hyphotesis, the scientists monitored cancer incident in 3182 women who had breast implant. Previous to that, they estimated the cumulative survival rates by using both the product limit method, as well as Greenwood’s formula for the standard error. As a result, 37 women were diagnosed with breast cancer, and six of them died within a 2 to 10 year interval—minding that the deaths in this study were not related to a later cancer diagnosis (http://gateway.ut.ovid.com/gwl/ovidweb.cgi ).

Conflicting with this result, however, is the study conducted by Dr. Le Gem and others. They referred study relied on the participation of 4968 women younger than 65 years with breast implants and/or breast cancer. These patients were subjected to survival analyses and at the end of the experiment, 28% of all patients who did not have complete follow-up died, and about 2/3 of these deaths were caused by breast cancer (http://breast-cancer-research.com/content/7/2/R184 ). Moreover, there is also the Journal of Women’s Health study that reported 66 cases that involved interference with mammography by breast implants.

Both studies did prove that breast implants DO NOT cause cancer; however, whether or not they interfere with its early detention remains controversial. Carefully analyze this before putting yourself through a knife.

Infections

According to studies, one of the driving forces in the pathogenesis of capsular contracture is the biofilm, Staphylococcus Epidermidis, which penetrates the breast implants during the procedure (http://gateway.ut.ovid.com/gwl/ovidweb.cgi ). In addition to S. Epidermidis, however, breast implants, particularly saline implants are also infected by other bacteria as well as fungi organisms. These organisms have not only the potential to survive inside implants, but they may also agglutinate in the body. The question I ask myself now lies on whether they can cause any additional damage besides capsular contracture.

Capsular Contracture

Capsular contracture, the scar tissue that forms around the implant which causes the breasts to harden, exists in four grades. In the occurrence of grade III or IV, the patient is generally subjected to another surgery to either remove the implant capsule tissue or to replace it, which does not necessarily prevent capsule contracture from happening again. Moreover, capsular contracture is also the complication that most frequently leads patients for additional surgeries. Based on a study funded by the Dow Corning Corporation that consisted of the follow up of cohort women with breast implants, capsular contracture has a prevalence of a.6% to 100% (http://gateway.ut.ovid.com/gw1/ovidweb.cgi )

In order to conduct this study, 754 cohort women from eight plastic surgery clinics were chosen based on their implant placement, the placement of skin incision, implant type, volume, as well as implant surface. These women were then followed up for a determined period of time. At the end of follow-up, the data obtained from each clinic was then combined. As a result from this study, 82.5% women underwent reimplantation due to capsular contracture. Almost 31.2% of those implants were double lumen textured, 27.8% were single lumen textured implant, 0.8% was double lumen with smooth surface, and the rest of the implants had incomplete information. To this end one may infer that capsular contracture occurs regardless of the type and placement of the implant.