silicone breast implant

silicone breast implant, prosthesis made from a polymer gel contained within a flexible casing that is used for the reconstruction or augmentation of the female mammary tissue. The polymer gel is made up of a chain of alternating silicon and oxygen atoms, which makes the substance highly stable and resistant to decomposition by heat or water. In addition, the gel’s viscosity, which resembles human fat, and compressibility, or firmness, are similar to that of natural breast tissue. Silicone breast implants are one of two major types of breast implants, the other being saline-filled implants.

The safety of silicone breast implants has been a major source of controversy, and concerns over whether such implants should be medically approved devices have centred primarily on the risk of implant rupture, which can lead to leakage of the gel into surrounding tissues and has been claimed to give rise to cancer and other diseases. Although initial clinical trials failed to show evidence that breast implants cause disease in humans, monitoring of women who have received any type of breast implant (i.e., silicone gel-filled or saline-filled) has revealed possible associations of a type of lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. Today silicone breast implants are medically approved for use in many countries, though potential health risks continue to be investigated.

The first silicone breast implants

The first breast implant made with silicone gel was introduced in the United States in 1962. The implant was developed by American plastic surgeons Frank Gerow and Thomas Cronin, who used as source material a supply of silicone donated by the U.S.-based company Dow Corning (a conglomerate of Dow Chemical Company and Corning, Inc.). The original design of the silicone breast implant underwent a series of refinements in the 1960s and ’70s. The outer shell of the implant was made thicker, and the likelihood of gel leakage, which had been a major problem with the original model, was eventually reduced. However, insertion of the implant still required large incisions, which caused significant scarring, and many patients needed additional operations to adjust or repair an implant. Today scarring and multiple surgeries remain drawbacks associated with those implants.

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Safety issues and regulation

Concerns about the safety and health effects of silicone breast implants were first voiced in the late 1970s, though they drew little public attention. In the early 1980s there emerged claims that silicone implants caused cancer and various autoimmune, neurological, and connective tissue diseases. Although Gerow and Cronin had tested the implant in clinical trials, in the early 1960s there were no laws in existence in the United States that required safety review or approval of medical devices. In fact, a law necessitating these practices was not introduced until 1976. Known as the Medical Devices Amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, this law required only that new devices be subjected to regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Thus, the safety of silicone breast implants, as well as all other medical devices in use prior to 1976, was not assessed by the FDA. In 1988, because of concerns surrounding breast implants, the FDA required manufacturers to conduct trials to reevaluate the safety of the devices, with data to be submitted in 1991. However, the data produced by these studies neither proved nor disproved the safety of silicone implants, and further studies were therefore demanded. In 1992 the FDA limited the availability of silicone breast implants for clinical trials and permitted their use only as “a public health need.” This move provided time for an advisory committee to assess the safety data.

Dow Corning, which at the time was the largest manufacturer of silicone breast implants, was the hardest hit by the FDA restriction. In 1995, lawsuits filed by hundreds of thousands of women claiming to have suffered health problems as a result of silicone breast implants forced Dow Corning to seek protection from its creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code. However, a study conducted that same year found no evidence linking the implants to connective tissue disorders. The result of the study was the same as that reached in several earlier studies by other scientists. In 1997 a report based on a review of medical studies and presented by scientists from the U.S. National Cancer Institute and the FDA failed to find a link between silicone breast implants and incidence of breast cancer. The following year, after a 10-year legal battle, Dow Corning and lawyers for tens of thousands of women who claimed to have been injured by silicone breast implants made by Dow agreed to a $3.2 billion settlement.

In November 2007, following an exhaustive review of the safety of silicone-gel breast implants, the FDA lifted its then 14-year-long ban on their use in the United States. The FDA also licensed two companies to manufacture the devices. The implants were made available to all women for breast reconstruction following mastectomy or trauma and to women aged 22 and older for breast augmentation. The FDA required the two manufacturers to monitor the safety of the implants by collecting detailed data on their use in 80,000 women.

In 2011 health officials uncovered a possible link between silicone breast implants and the development of anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL), a type of T-cell lymphoma. Five years later the World Health Organization officially designated this condition as breast implant-associated ALCL (BIA-ALCL). Reports suggest that the risk of BIA-ALCL is higher with implants that have a textured rather than smooth surface.

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