Germany advises women to remove suspect breast implants

Jan 6, 2012, 18:08 GMT

Berlin - Germany's regulator of medical product safety shifted its ground Friday, advising all women with a French brand of breast implant to have them removed as a precaution.

The maker, Poly Implant Prothese, has admitted they contain a cheaper, industrial grade of silicone. Some 400,000 to 500,000 women worldwide have received the implants.

France said last month they carried an unacceptably high risk of rupture, leaking silicone gel into surrounding tissues, causing inflammation. Unconfirmed reports have claimed this can lead to cancer.

BfArM, the Bonn-based agency that oversees the safety of drugs and implants, had last year said the implants should only be taken out if they were at risk of rupture.

On Friday, it said silicone was likely to seep through the envelopes of all the PIP implants even if they did not rupture. All women should therefore have them removed. Cosmetic surgery is not covered by Germany's public health insurance system.

BfArM said it was still collecting data on how many German women had the implants.

France and the Czech Republic have also advised total removal, but other nations have said this is not necessary.

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