I saw an interesting article on Wired magazine's website about the pending silicone breast implant reintroduction. It caught my attention as it quoted my friend & mentor, Dr. Pat Maxwell from Nashville,TN in the article.
There's a great quote from him putting into context some of the demands being asked of manufacturers by the anti-implant lobbying groups:
"It's like telling Nokia or Motorola they haven't proved cell phones don't cause brain cancer," said Pat Maxwell, a Nashville, Tennessee-based plastic surgeon and a clinical professor of surgery at Vanderbilt University.
Maxwell helped invent the silicone breast implant marketed by Inamed, which was bought by Allergan for $3.21 billion in March.Maxwell noted that penis implants that have been used for decades are made of the same type of silicone as their breast counterparts. "American surgeons are 15 years behind the times. In Tasmania, of all places, they're shocked that American women don't have access to silicone gel implants," said Maxwell, who was on the Australian island to speak at a plastic surgery conference.
No word yet from the FDA though. I'm watching tomorrow's congressional election closely as I mentioned previously, as this could have an effect on the status of these devices.
tags:
breast implant
plastic surgery
silicone
Pat Maxwell
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2 comments:
I participated in the INAMED silicone breast implants clinical research study a year ago. Guess what? The silicone is not the problem for most women. It's the platinum that is a component of both the implant itself and it's contents. My platinum levels are on the moon! My doctor tells me that my symptoms for the past year and one half, are similar to cancer patients receiving platinum-based chemo drugs. Women, beware- do your research!!!!
suzy,
The issue of platinum has been examined several times at this point by the U.S. FDA and it's equivalents in Canada, the U.K., & the E.U. There is strong consensus that the plausibility for toxicity with the kind of platinum used in implant manufacturing is low.
Save for a controversial study which has been largely disowned (see http://plasticsurgery101.blogspot.com/2006/07/journal-backpedaling-on-platinum.html), this is not an issue I'd counsel women to be concerned about.
I would look to other things besides platinum for explaining your symptoms based on everything we know about this issue in the medical literature.
Were you actually tested for this? It's a pretty rare assay for someone to have had ordered by their doctor for vague symptoms.
Rob
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