Fifty Years with Silicone Gel Breast Implants. What’s on the Horizon in 2016? [Part 5 of 5]

As I began this series, we have come to a new chapter in the use of the silicone gel breast implant. The chapter actually began in 2006 when the FDA released silicone gel back into the U.S. market for breast augmentation. The silicone “crisis” never reached other countries in the world, only the U.S. with its very unique legal system. When implants were released, there were new product warnings, labeling, follow-up recommendations, age restrictions, and the requirement for an additional 10 years of post market studies to add to the already burgeoning implant research data. But what did we truly learn from the past experience? Breast augmentation remains a very popular procedure with very high satisfaction rates. Those who choose breast augmentation will most likely wear implants their entire life. Satisfaction is so high that most would prefer never to even think about their breast implants, and even forget to mention them when they have a mammogram. Herein lays the problem; all breast implants will wear out and need replacement. We repeat the need for implant maintenance, the value of MRI tests, importance of the ‘ten year’ check, though is everybody listening? Everyone wearing a silicone gel implant should keep the implant identification card, keep in touch with a surgeon for check ups, and know all good things come to an end, and for most, new implants and a new beginning. Implants will have a significant, though low leak rate at ten years of perhaps 8%, so I have marked my calendar for 2016; just ten years after silicone gel implants came back and hit the ground running. This could be critical year, if we have not learned from the past one. Remember, your breast implants will not make you sick, and do not cause cancer, and will not explode in your chest, but they will eventually leak, each and every one of them. When the news comes on in 2016 and newscasters break the story, remember you heard it here first. Let’s not panic, no shock and dismay, just out with the old ones and in with the new. Ten good years is, well, ten very good years. By then, the silicone gel implant will turn 54, and no doubt will still be the most studied medical device in the world.