Numerous reports, based chiefly on studies funded by Dow Corning, have reported that there is no evidence of increased death or classically defined autoimmune diseases among women with silicone breast implants. These comprise the Canadian Expert Advisory Committee review in 1992, ANDEM in France in 1996, the UK Independent Review Group 1998, and the U.S. Institute of Medicine in 1999, and the Scientific Technical Opinions Assessment (STOA) report commissioned by the European Parliament in 2001 (updated in 2003). Since studies have followed women with implants for a longer period of time, evidence has grown-up regarding serious systemic symptoms. A Danish study, funded by Dow Corning and the Danish Cancer Society, reported that women who had breast implants for an average of 19 years were significantly more likely to inform fatigue, Raynaud-like symptoms (white fingers and toes when exposed to cold), and memory loss and other cognitive symptoms, in contrast to women of the same age in the general population. The researchers seemed to disregard these findings when they accomplished that long-term exposure to breast implants "does not appear to be associated with autoimmune symptoms or diseases". A large study by the National Cancer Institute found a reduced standardized death proportion in breast implant augmentation patients and other plastic surgery patients, reflecting the fact that plastic surgery patients tend to be healthier and wealthier than the general population. Conversely, the women with implants were two times as prone to die from lung cancer in contrast with other plastic surgery patients, with no facts of a variation in smoking history. The implant patients did not have an enlarged risk of death from breast cancer compared with either the general population or other plastic surgery patients.
Repair or Revision Surgery
Despite the type of implant, it is likely that women with implants will need to have one or more additional surgeries (repeated operations) over the course of their lives. General reasons for repeated operations include cosmetic concerns, capsular contracture and rupture. Repeated operation rates are more usual in breast reconstruction cases. The major implant manufacturers, Mentor and Inamed, both reported that almost half their reconstruction patients experienced additional surgeries within three years to fix implant problems, whether their implants were silicone or saline. More than 50,000 implant removal procedures were also reported in 2004. In fact, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons reports that in 2000, about 26% of augmentation and 16% of reconstruction surgeries were for replacement of implants—due to capsular contracture, rupture, implant shift, chronic infection, or other causes.
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