Canadian study confirms women with implants require more medical care.

2003 DEC 4 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A new study by epidemiologists at the British Columbia Centre of Excellence for Women's Health, finds that Canadian women with breast implants use much more medical services than other women of the same age, education, and lifestyles.

Data were collected from more than 700 women, and the researchers compared the use of medical services by women who had breast implants to similar women who did not have breast implants. In the years following their implant surgery, women who have or previously had breast implants:

1) visited doctors and specialists significantly more often

2) were more than four times as likely to be hospitalized, and

3) were hospitalized significantly more often than were women without implants.

Epidemiologist and principal investigator Aleina Tweed points out that all these differences remained significant when age, marital status, education level, exercise, use of alcohol, and geographic region were statistically controlled. Types of implants (saline or silicone gel) did not significantly affect hospitalization or medical utilization.

More than half (51%) of implant patients reported at least one additional breast-implant related surgery subsequent to the initial implant surgery. Of those, half (49%) had undergone one additional surgery, 23% had undergone two, 11% had undergone three, and 17% had undergone four or more additional surgeries. After coping with complications, 40% of women with implants had them permanently removed.