Implants almost exonerated.More than 1 million US. women have received silicon-gel breast implants Breast Implants Definition Breast implantation is a surgical procedure for enlarging the breast. Breast-shaped sacks made of a silicone outer shell and filled with silicone gel or saline (salt water), called implants, are used. since the early 1960s -- some for cosmetic breast augmentation, others to simulate a breast lost to cancer. However, 2 years ago the Food and Drug Administration triggered a moratorium on the use of these implants when sporadic reports began linking them to connective-tissue disease connective-tissue disease n. Any of a group of noninheritable diseases that affect the connective tissue, such as rheumatic fever and rheumatoid arthritis, and that are characterized by fever, pain, stiffness, and inflammation. and autoimmune disorders Autoimmune Disorders Definition Autoimmune disorders are conditions in which a person's immune system attacks the body's own cells, causing tissue destruction. . A new study finds little evidence to support that link. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., compared the health of 749 area women who had received an implant between 1964 and 1991 to that of twice as many local women of the same ages without implants. Five women with implants developed some form of connective-tissue disease, as did an equal proportion of women (10) without implants. Sherine E. Gabriel and her coworkers report their findings in the June 16 New England Journal of Medicine The New England Journal of Medicine (New Engl J Med or NEJM) is an English-language peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is one of the most popular and widely-read peer-reviewed general medical journals in the world. (NEJM NEJM New England Journal of Medicine ). Included among the many disorders that the group defined as connective-tissue disease were various forms of arthritis (including rheumatoid), vasculitis Vasculitis Definition Vasculitis refers to a varied group of disorders which all share a common underlying problem of inflammation of a blood vessel or blood vessels. The inflammation may affect any size blood vessel, anywhere in the body. , systemic sclerosis, and systemic lupus erythematosus Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Definition Systemic lupus erythematosus (also called lupus or SLE) is a disease where a person's immune system attacks and injures the body's own organs and tissues. Almost every system of the body can be affected by SLE. -- several of which have been linked previously to silicone breast implants (SN: 12/12/92, p.414). The researchers also scouted for unusual rates of cancers originating in sites other than the breast, crirrhosis of bile-conveying tissues, and one type of thyroid inflammation. Though there were higher reports of joint swelling and morning stiffness among women in the implant group, the authors suspect that such symptoms actually traced to a woman's having had breast cancer. Indeed, they point out, "the incidence rates of these events were similar to those among the control women with breast cancer who did not receive a breast implant." An editorial by Marcia Angell, NEJM's executive editor, supports the Mayo group's contention that a study the size of theirs cannot fully exonerate implants. However, Angell adds, the data do indicate that "any possible risk from breast implants in this population could not be large." |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion