LeRoy Young Answers/Questions on Implants (7/97) ~ Currently on net
Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1999 13:41:08 -0700
From: ilena rose ilena@san.rr.com
During a search on soybean implants, your article below came up (thanks to Toxic Discovery Network).
Please know that it is seriously outdated. These experimental implants were hurriedly taken off the British market because of infections and even death.
Attempts to find out the progress of the 25 medical schools have led to no answers. Perhaps you could do an update of what is going on in the soybean oil trials.
Dr. Young's comment below on silicone gel implants "losing FDA approval" is very misleading. NO breast implant has ever had approval for safety.
If you could pass this on to the author of this article, we would greatly appreciate it.
Best regards,
Ilena Rosenthal
Director: Humantics Foundation for Women Breast Implants: Recovery & Discovery
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From: "Baxterno" spudnik@magiclink.com
My response to Dr. Leroy Young:
As a breast cancer survivor of almost 25 years, I am appalled at the doctors who continue to use women as guinea pigs with unproven products. In 24+ years, I have come full circle through the implant hell created by doctors who don't give a damn! I was 27 when I had cancer and I was never sick (never had a treatment, either) until at 32 I entered the road to silicone hell.
How do you explain the ban in England of the soybean breast implant last year? What are the local complications in the event of implant failure? What are the rupture rates? Where is the FDA approval and what is the date on it? Where are the studies that prove absolute safety for humans? Where are the studies that are not funded by either the inventor of the soybean implant or by the company who will be producing it? How do you justify a stinking rancid oil that puts off an offensive odor in women?
HomeArts Ask the Doctors (July 1997)
Your health questions answered by specialists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
BY SARAH McCRAW CROW
Please remember that the general information found in this column is not a substitute for the advice of your physician.
Building a Better Breast Implant
Q: I've read about a new kind of breast implant. Is it available yet? Is it safer than silicone-filled implants? I ruled out breast enlargement surgery a long time ago, but I'm wondering if I should reconsider if there's a safe option now.
A: It's not yet available commercially, but the Trilucent brand breast implant is different. This new implant contains soybean oil, which may offer the primary benefit of silicone-filled implants - a more natural feel - with fewer risks.
As you know, liquid-silicone implants gained notoriety, and lost their Food and Drug Administration approval, after reports of a link to arthritis-like problems (also referred to as connective issue disease) in some women who'd had implants. Although more recent studies have cast doubt on this link, silicone implants can cause other problems.
Over time the scar tissue, or capsule, that forms around these implants may contract, making the breast feel harder and look rounder, and sometimes causing discomfort or pain. After a number of years, silicone implants may also rupture. Right now a less risky option for women seeking augmentation is the saline implant (filled with salt water). It's the only type of implant approved for commercial use, but saline implants are far from perfect: They may wrinkle or feel noticeably different from the rest of the breast.
With its lower rate of problems like hardening, rupturing, and wrinkling, the Trilucent implant should be an improvement over both saline and silicone. And because the soybean oil acts as a lubricant to the implant's shell, it's possible these implants will last longer than those filled with silicone, which have a lifespan of about 10 to 15 years. Another important plus: Oil-filled implants allow better mammography readings than silicone or saline.
Surgeons at about 25 medical centers are studying Trilucent and silicone implants, both of which are approved for clinical trials only. The FDA will decide whether to approve the implants for general use once the studies are finished.
Is breast augmentation for you? The number of women seeking breast surgery (augmentation mammaplasty) has risen dramatically in recent years - there were 87,704 such surgeries in 1996, up from 39,247 in 1994. This is probably because researchers have found no clear evidence of any relationship between implants and connective tissue disease. Before you decide on this surgery, whether your aim is to increase breast size or correct an asymmetry, weigh the benefits and risks, as well as your expectations. You'll want to make sure that you're undertaking this surgery for yourself, not for anyone else. You'll also need to accept that augmentation surgery will mean having something foreign within your breast, and that over time complications can happen. And, chances are, breast implants won't last your lifetime and will have to be replaced.
Editor's note: Dr. V. Leroy Young, who answered this question, holds a patent on the Trilucent implant.
