Mortality among augmentation mammoplasty patients

Much attention has focused on disease risks among women receiving silicone breast implants, but there has been little evaluation of their mortality ex perience. We undertook a retrospective cohort study of 13,488 women receivi ng cosmetic implants and 3,936 patients with other types of plastic surgery at 18 plastic surgery practices. After an average of 13 years of follow-up , deficits in overall mortality were found as compared with the general pop ulation (U.S, rates) for both implant [255 deaths; standardized mortality r atio (SMR) = 0.69, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.6-0.8] and comparison s ubjects (125 deaths; SMR = 0.58, 95% CI = 0.5-0.7). These findings indicate that patients seeking plastic surgery are in general healthier than their peers. Implant patients, however, experienced excess risks of death compare d with the general population for brain cancer (SMR = 2.45) and suicide (SM R = 1.54). Internal analyses showed a higher overall mortality among the im plant than among the comparison patients (relative risk = 1.27, 95% CI = 1. 0-1.6). This overall excess reflected increases for respiratory tract (SMR = 3.03) and brain (SMR = 2.25) cancers and for suicide (SMR = 4.24).