Breast prostheses, an everyday scandal



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That was in 1997. The first woman was 38 years old when she was diagnosed with a rare cancer of the lymph nodes, called anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ACG). To date, they are 615 in the world, including 56 in France, according to Corinne Haioun, professor of hematology at the hospital Henri-Mondor de Creteil, the head of the register of lymphoma cases in France. All, or almost all, have in common to have worn so-called "textured" bad implants, whose granular surface has been designed to better adhere to tissue. A "Velcro effect" which causes inflammatory reactions.

The suspicion of a link between the textured implants of prostheses and this pathology hovers since 2008, but two studies published in September attest it without ambiguity.

On 21 November, the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) issued a message of caution, advising surgeons "Preferably use smooth-skin bad implants", waiting to make a final decision in early 2019. The next day, the scholarly society of plastic surgeons, who preferred until then "Do not needlessly worry the population", also recommended to no longer pose Biocell macro-textured implants from the Allergan laboratory, those who dominate the market, " because of [leur] over-representation " in the case of LAGC.

Macro-textured bad prosthesis of Sebbin laboratories.
Macro-textured bad prosthesis from Sebbin Laboratories. YVES SAMUEL FOR THE WORLD

Surgeons, alerted by the adverse effects, had taken the lead and banned these prostheses for years: it is indeed the bad implants that cause the most reports of incidents in France.

For Agnès Buzyn, the Minister of Health, it was so far difficult to "Highlight statistically" this link. This is not the first time that the long history of bad implants reveals the inability of authorities to detect problems, and to badess their magnitude. They are not able to say today, among the 400,000 to 500,000 women carrying bad implants in France, how many are concerned. The department is talking about at least 340,000 textured prostheses, but it can not be verified.

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