Soybean product may endanger Baltic women

  • 2000-07-13
  • By Anna Pridanova
RIGA - The substance a woman may have in her breasts can damage her health. The soybean oil-filled breast implants have been discovered recently to be dangerous to the health of the carriers, because with time they break and become toxic and carcinogenic, and may cause cancer.

The discovery of the British Medical Devices Agency, made public in early June, affects at least 18,000 women who carry such implants. Still, it is difficult to estimate how many women could have these implants because of extensive abuse of patents in many post-Soviet countries, which might produce similar implants without meeting quality standards, said Janis Gilis, a plastic surgeon. Gilis made the first surgery to change such implants in Riga.

It is also unclear today how many of Latvia's women need to change implants, because there is no unified register on such surgeries. Predictably not many, because none of 16 Latvian plastic surgery clinics ever registered the use of soybean oil-filled breast implants.

But the first case of trouble has been recorded. One Riga resident underwent a new surgery after she had problems with the soybean oil-filled implant.

"She had surgery three years ago in England, and became suspicious recently that something might not be all right," said Gilis.

"Although these implants were never officially sold or used in surgeries in Latvia, the committee's recommendation is relevant also for Latvia's women. Latvia has notable connections with Britain, where these implants were produced and widely used, and with Russia, where they were popular," said Gilis.

According to Gilis, it is very hard even to assume how many women in Latvia carry breast implants. It might be 2,000 as well as 5,000 people. Several years ago, such surgeries became more popular in Latvia, when the purchasing power of the population rose. Now such surgery will cost around 1,350 lats ($2,210).

Usually 97 percent of all breast correction surgeries result in no complications, said Gilis. Additional surgery is usually needed in 3 percent of cases, but they have no life-threatening consequences anyway.

Still, this is not true with the soybean oil-filled implants, which are to be substituted with silicone- or saline-filled implants, the only two safe procedures, even if the patient has no complaints, according to a statement from the European Committee on Quality Assurance and Medical Devices in Plastic Surgery (EQUAM) on June 23.

"If it is documented that the patient has soybean oil-filled implants, we will contact the insurance company that took responsibility for the surgery for covering the cost of the implant removal. But anyway the patient herself will have to pay for new implants," said Gilis.

Improving safety

The world has known silicone breast implants since 1963. An estimated 8 million women have breast implants.

The first generation implants were very different from the implants of today. They had thick walls, never broke, but left many women unsatisfied with the cosmetic effect.

The next generation of implants' produced good cosmetic effect, but were less durable.

Soybean implants were invented as an alternative that did not contain the word 'silicone' during the silicone scandal that broke out in 1992 and captured front pages in the world's media.

"Later on, research proved that silicone itself does not cause complications. Besides, until now, no better material for breast implants has been invented," explained Gilis.

"It would be an exaggeration to assert that silicone implants cause breast cancer. You can't be sure whether cancer was caused by silicone implants or it just was discovered after they were implanted. You can't be that categorical. It is the same as to say that all people who ate tomatoes died," said Dace Baltina, scientific consultant for the state Oncology Center.

One doctor contacted by The Baltic Times disagrees.

"There is a lot of evidence that silicone and saline implants are potentially dangerous. We have lots of women here that are ill. They are growing bacteria in the scar capsule, and if we take the capsule or the implants out, their health gets better," said Susan Kolb, a plastic surgeon from Georgia, USA, who became ill from breast implants.

"Silicone gel implants have a problem in that they leak or rupture within eight to 15 years, or eight years to 20 years. That can cause a problem. The saline implants have a problem that a small percentage of them can get infected. Bacterial fungus can grow inside the saline. And the scar capsule around the implant can get infected," she said.

Until 1998, when the most thorough research on the consequences of using soybean oil-filled implants was launched, it was thought that they were health- friendly and that absorption of the implant's content by surrounding tissues did not threaten health, said Gilis.

"The soybean implants have additional problems, which silicone and saline implants presumably do not have, that cause cancer," said Kolb in a phone interview from the United States.

Joining Europe soon

In Latvia, the creation of a unified register of transplants will start in September. Such a register is already working in 12 EQUAM countries, and the remaining 40 countries will join the first dozen soon.

This will help to produce more precise statistics on the quality of different implants and their influence on the patients' health.

The register will contain information on when and why the surgery was made, the kind of implants used, the technique and who did the surgery, as well as the data of the regular post-surgery medical examination, also required by EQUAM.