Silicone breast implants and connective tissue disease

An Independent Review Group (IRG) (set up by the Chief Medical Officer in 1997) concluded that silicone gel breast implants are not associated with a greater health risk than other surgical implants. The IRG also concluded that there is no evidence that children of women with silicone gel breast implants are at an increased risk of connective tissue disease.

A meta-analysis (2) also concluded that silicone breast implants, including silicone gel implants, are not associated with an increased risk connective tissue disease.

A study examined cause-specific mortality in a cohort of 24,558 women with breast implants and 15,893 women who underwent other plastic surgery procedures in Ontario and Quebec, Canada, between 1974 and 1989 (3)

• the study findings suggest that breast implants do not directly increase mortality in women

Reference:

1. Independent Review Group. Silicone gel breast implants: the report of the Independent Review Group. London: Medical Devices Agency, 1998.
2. Janowsky et al . Meta-analyses of the relation between silicone breast implants and the risk of connective-tissue diseases. NEJM 200;342: 781-90.
3. Villeneuve PJ et al.Mortality among Canadian women with cosmetic breast implants. Am J Epidemiol. 2006 Aug 15;164(4):334-41.