History of Breast Implants

Sources: Vanderford & Smith ( ); Zimmerman, S. (1998); UK Indep. Review Group

Today, there are over 2 million women with breast implants. According to Vanderford & Smith, Zimmerman, (and other info on various websites) about 20-30% of these implants are done to reshape the woman’s body after mastectomy. The other 70-80% are called augmentation, done voluntarily at the client’s wishes.

Breast implants have been around for nearly 75 years. Prior to 1992, about 150,000 women received implants annually. Since 1994 and the heightened controversy, about 70,000 women each year undergo this procedure.

Silicone first developed in the 1930s – following WWII silicone was first used as breast injections—this first documented with Japanese women who wanted to satisfy American GIs. V&S report that an estimated 50,000 American women have had silicone injections SINCE the late 1940s.

Most often the silicone was mixed with variety of other elements – paraffin wax, olive oil, transformer coolant . Of course this caused severe medical complications but was continued for some time until FDA banned in --

In 1965 Dow Chemical introduced the silicone implant and it received widespread use until 1992. The saline implant was introduced in the 1970s.

The FDA decided to regulate all implants beginning in 1976. In the years leading up to 1976, there was an accumulating number of reports, some from individuals in the medical community, but most from patients, about many health problems that seemed to be associated with the implants. In the late 1980s an animal study showed that silicone implants could cause cancer in rats.

Still today, this is a topic of great debate, both within the medical community as well as among private citizens (as you’ve seen on the websites), and I don’t believe we have clear confident data to say for certainty that implants do or do not cause harm.

In November, 1991, however, we saw the largest award made to an individual for complications experienced from implants. Mariann Hopkins was awarded $7.3 million for implant ruptures that she said caused autoimmune disease.

This case led to others, including the May, 1995 class action lawsuit by 400,000 women.

The FDA continued its scrutiny and in 1992 ordered silicone implants off the market. But studies following this ban did not prove silicone to be the culprit and in 92-93 the AMA spoke out sharply on the need for silicone implants to return. According to V&S, the AMA is credited with their return to the market. In 1993 the AMA Medical Association Task Force concluded there was not sufficient data to establish a statistical link between silicone gel implants and systemic disease.

Similarly, in 1992 and again in 1994, an Independent Expert Advisory Group for the UK Department of Health concluded that there was no evidence of increased connective tissue disease in silicone implant patients.

Especially since the 1990s, there have been numerous news shows, magazine articles, and scholarly medical studies that have focused on breast implants. EX:

n article from Journal of Rheumatology says no established medical link

n 1996 study by Burton in 1996 of x# women 10-12 yrs after implants first in – found 91% of polyurethane coated and 31% of conventional silicone implants had ruptured.

As you examine the medical studies in this area, the findings are mixed.

According to V&S, however, there are approx. 75 health-related problems that are or allegedly linked to breast implants.