Dr, Melmed/Rey interview on CBS - Should Ban Be LIved?

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(CBS) Should the Food and Drug Administration ban on

silicone implants be lifted?

Dr. Rey, a plastic surgeon featured on the

reality show, " Dr. 90201, " believes it should be. Dr.

Melmed, who is also a plastic surgeon with a

private practice in Dallas, Texas, believes the ban

should remain.

" In my personal practice, " Dr. Melmed tells The Early

Show co-anchor Hannah Storm, " I have found at a pretty

constant rate that by ten years after implantation,

approximately 50 percent of implants are ruptured. It

rises to 70 percent by 15 years, and over 90 percent

by 20 years. "

He began doing breast implants more than 35 years ago

and performed the procedure thousands of times. In

1992, he stopped putting breast implants in and began

taking them out.

Thirteen years after most use of silicone-gel breast

implants was banned, the government reopened the

emotional debate Monday on whether to lift the

restrictions - despite lingering questions about how

often the devices can break inside women's bodies and

how bad those breaks really are.

The issue here is not lack of caring for patients who

want to have a breast implant, but of freedom of

choice, says Dr. Ray, who thinks the ban on silicone

implants should be lifted.

" American women are very, very smart, and I think they

should be given the option to choose what kind of

implant they want, " Dr. Ray says. " If you look in

Europe, Australia South America, both implants are

available - that is silicone and saline inplants. "

Dr. Ray notes, today's silicone implants no longer

leak even if the shell gets ruptured. And he adds, " In

1999, the Institute Of Medicine, which is a branch of

government, showed silicone implants does not cause

cancer or auto-immune diseases or other problems, nor

does it affect pregnant mothers, or does it pass

through the milk to the infants. So the implants have

been shown to be safe. It's a new implant. The implant

no longer leaks. It's cohesive. It's almost

semi-solid. "

Dr. Melmed, however, says the risks outweigh the

benefits of having breast implants.

He says, " The risk is that you're going to put an

implant into possibly 16- or 18-year-old girls. In

their lifetime, they're going to be faced with the

probability, if all goes well, of four to five

operations. The statistics are that roughly 20 to 25

percent of women who receive implants are reoperated

on within one year for complications.

" Now it's one thing if you've got a medical device

that fails. Say, for example, hip prosthesis in a

70-year-old. But when we put a medical device into a

16-year-old, the so-called 'boob job for graduation,'

we have to be sure that safety is paramount. Now

implants deteriorate over time. The evidence that has

been presented is only of four years' observation. In

my personal experience, at four years, my rupture rate

in patients is 4 percent. But by ten years, it's 50

percent. "

About operating on young women, Dr. Ray says he does

not operate on women under 18 years of age. He says,

" That's at the FDA suggestion. "

And using both silicon and saline inplants, he says,

" The problem with saline implants is that it can make

noises because bubbles can be left in it. It leaks

about 5 percent a year. And it ripples. In a thin

patient or patient who had lost her breast and needs

reconstruction, these ripples are horrible. And you

can see them from far away. Silicone just offers

another option. The whole issue here is to give

American women a choice. Like the rest of the world

has a choice. "