Breast implant manufacturers' own scientific studies have concluded that breast implants fail at high rates and will lead women back to the operating table. These failure rates are highest among breast cancer patients who undergo reconstruction with implants following mastectomy. The FDA, and the manufacturers argue that breast implants fulfill a public health need by assisting in the psychological and emotional recovery from breast cancer. In an article that will be published this month in the Journal of the American Medical Women's Association , Dr. Diana Zuckerman calls on doctors to provide better advice to breast cancer patients. In reviewing articles published in the most prestigious medical journals, Dr. Zuckerman concludes that most new cancer patients who undergo mastectomies and reconstruction did not need the mastectomies and were not adequately informed about the risks of reconstruction.
Implants increase the technical difficulty of taking and reading mammograms.
Breast implants can make it difficult for women to detect lumps during monthly self-exams. The reoperation rate in the first three years for post-mastectomy patients was 40 percent in a study of 1265 women conducted by Mentor Corporation. A moderately expensive initial procedure becomes increasingly costly as surgeries are repeated and implants are removed and replaced. In a McGhan study of 1300 women, after surviving breast cancer, a woman who undergoes mastectomy and reconstruction with a saline implants has an 84 percent risk of experiencing complications within the first four years. In a study of 1265 women conducted by Mentor Corporation, complication rates for reconstruction patients were three times greater than for augmentation patients.