Silicone breast implants and autoimmune disease.

Abstract

In 1992, the Food and Drug Administration requested a voluntary moratorium on the scale and implantation of silicone-gel-filled breast implants because of growing concern over the lack of scientific and clinical data supporting their safety and effectiveness. Breast implants had been reported to cause serious local complications, and new questions about breast implants and increased risk for autoimmune disease, including the rare but sometimes fatal connective tissue disease scleroderma, were also raised. Since that time, clinical studies have focused on the adjuvant effect of silicone and of potential autoantibody production. Epidemiologic studies have ruled out a large increased risk for connective tissue disease overall in women with breast implants, but samples were too small to rule out an increase in rare connective tissue diseases. Nor were studies properly designed to address whether an atypical syndrome might develop in women with breast implants. Meta-analyses of these studies cannot remedy their underlying methodologic weaknesses. While the question of whether rare connective tissue disease is associated with breast implants may never be answered definitively, recent progress in identifying new syndromes such as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome may provide an insight into methodology for evaluating the existence of a silicone-related syndrome in women with breast implants.