Breast Implants

* Your editorial on bad science and the silicone breast implant case (June 28) failed to identify the bad science in the latest study to find no link between breast implants and a variety of connective tissue disorders. A group of women with implants did not have more connective tissue disease than a group without implants, so the conclusion: no link. However, in the Boston research study “once a subject had surgery for a silicone breast implant, she was defined as having been exposed to silicone,” which means the “exposed” group included women with intact implants.

Though intact silicone breast implants may be safe, oozing silicone, which inflames tissue and migrates through the body, probably is not. The doctors who are convinced silicone breast implants can cause various disorders see a group of women different from those in the Boston study. In a series of women who had silicone breast implantation and subsequent development of significant medical and neurological problems referred to me for neuropsychological evaluation, almost all had evidence of leakage or rupture.

To learn whether silicone from breast implants can cause connective tissue and other disorders, what is needed is a large study that compares a group of women with known leakage or rupture to a group of women without implants. Unfortunately, the focus of the Boston study is on implants, leaking or not, rather than onsilicone. This focus benefits the manufacturers of implants; it does nothing to illuminate the medical issues regarding exposure to silicone.

AMY E. VEROFF PhD

Neuropsychologist, Pasadena