Syndromes Associated with Silicone Breast Implants: A Clinical Study and Review

Silicone breast implants have been associated with a variety of medical conditions. This article is the first in an analysis of the data that have been accumulated in over 500 patients with medical conditions that appear coincident with implantation with several different silicone breast prosthetic devices. The vast majority, over 87% of symptomatic patients, appear to have a neuropathy (demyelinating and axonal-diagnosis made on nerve and muscle biopsy and ELISA analysis), while approximately 22-25% of symptomatic patients have evidence of autoimmune thyroid disease. A small percentage of patients (10-12%) have evidence of central demyelination (brain and spinal cord-diagnosis made by magnetic resonance imaging and ELISA testing). Silicone breast implant adjuvant syndrome is proposed as a diagnosis for these symptomatic patients. The significance of these findings is discussed in considerable detail and extensive references are offered for the reader.