The Great Implant Debate

Oct. 22, 2007 — -- When Amanda Johnson began to consult plastic surgeons about breast reconstruction after a double mastectomy, she ran into major difficulties.

"The plastic surgeon I went to was not willing to implant silicone," said Johnson, 52, of San Diego. Johnson, an operating room nurse, knew what happened to saline implants with time. "They become hard as rocks," she said. "When you go to the beach, you have to dig a hole just to put your breasts in when lying down."

Johnson said she was given few options, and eventually consulted a different surgical center that offered silicone as well as saline implants.

"There are various ways to reconstruct a breast," said Dr. Anne Wallace, director of the breast care unit at University of California San Diego, who eventually performed surgery on Johnson. "It really depends on the woman."

Breast reconstruction can take many forms. Fortunately for breast cancer survivors today, better treatments mean that mastectomies are in decline. And even when a mastectomy is necessary, in some cases tissue from a patient's abdomen can be used to reconstruct a breast. If that is not possible, doctors then turn to implants to recreate breasts.

Breast implants are silicone sacks filled with either silicone gel or saline (salt water) fluid.

The use of silicone, though preferred by many women, has raised concerns in the past. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pulled silicone implants from the market in 1992 due to fears they could rupture, but made the decision to allow their use again in 2006.

"In 25 years of experience and review, we can find no advantage of the saline over the silicone," said Dr. William Wood, a professor in the department of surgery at the Emory University School of Medicine.

In addition to such safety findings, many women seek out silicone for how it makes them feel. "Silicone creates a much softer, more pliable breast," said Wallace. "It feels more like the real thing."

Even though they are legal, doctors must fill out extra paperwork when they implant silicone and must submit their patients to biannual breast MRIs.

Wallace said that the rate of rupture in an implant is 0.3 percent for the first five years -- quite low by most standards. But while a rupture in a breast implant is rare and not dangerous to a woman's health, it can cause painful scar tissue or disfigurement of the breast.