Many of you will remember the recent scandal brought on by French breast implant maker Poly Implant Prosthese (PIP) when the company was disbanded and the executives jailed over their unethical practices of using non-medical grade silicone to manufacture their silicone breast implants sold throughout the world.

It is estimated that 30,000-40,000 women received PIP breast implants that may have caused, or may be causing, unknown and possibly dangerous side effects because of the likely contamination of the silicone gel used in these implants. When the story broke, we received quite a few calls from understandably worried women who wanted to know how they could tell if they had PIP implants, and what they should do about it if they did. We removed quite a few pairs of these implants during that time period, and helped several of these women deal with complications like severe capsular contractors, recurrent seromas (fluid collections), and PIP breast implant ruptures, but since that time we’ve noticed a dropoff in both the frequency of these calls, and in the sense of urgency on the calls that still come in.

If you or anyone you know had breast implants place in any country other than the United States in the past 20-25 years, please keep reading for an important reminder about the dangers of PIP implants, and why you should be concerned even if you aren’t sure if you have them…

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