Implants linked to disorders in children - nursing mothers with silicone gel breast implants

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Implants linked to disorders in children - nursing

mothers with silicone gel breast implants -

Science News, Jan 29, 1994 by Kathy A. Fackelmann

A preliminary study hints that children breast-fed by

mothers with silicone gel breast implants may develop

symptoms of an autoimmune attack,

Earlier research had indicated that women with these

implants may face increased risk of a puzzling array

of autoimmune disorders (SN: 12/12/92, p.414). In

fact, evidence linking silicone implants to autoimmune

disorders prompted the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration to restrict access to the implants.

J. Levine and Norman T. Ilowite of the Long

Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y.,

who conducted the study, knew that many women with

implants suffer from a skin disorder called

scleroderma. They also knew that scleroderma is often

accompanied by problems with the esophagus, the

muscular tube that leads to the stomach.

The pair evaluated 11 boys and girls who reported

gastrointestinal problems such as abdominal pain,

vomiting, and difficulty swallowing their food. All

had been born to women with silicone implants. Eight

of the mothers recalled nursing, and three had

bottle,fed their children.

Levine and Ilowite discovered that six of the eight

breast-fed children had problems with esophageal

peristalsis, the involuntary waves that push food down

this digestive tube. Without such waves, gravity is

the only force getting nourishment to the stomach,

Levine says. Each of the three bottle-fed children had

an apparently healthy esophagus.

The team also studied 17 controls, children with

stomach pain whose mothers did not have silicone

implants. When compared to controls, the breast-fed

children in the silicone group had abnormal esophageal

function, the team reports in the Jan. 19 JOURNAL OF

THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.

Although the study is small, the results appear

significant, Levine says, noting that this esophageal

disorder is rare in the general pediatric population.

The researchers don't know whether children with the

condition will outgrow their digestive problems;

however, the digestive symptoms of three children in

the study persisted.

Researchers have yet to uncover a mechanism by which

silicone gel implants might cause disease, notes

A. Flick of Temple University School of

Medicine in Philadelphia. Flick, who wrote an

editorial accompanying the study, suggests that

silicone may leach into breast milk and thus trigger

the esophageal difficulties later in a child's life.

Alternatively, the condition may result from

antibodies that slip past the placenta.

Should women with silicone implants forgo nursing an

infant? U.S. physicians remain cautious about such

advice, noting that the advantages of breast-feeding

are well established. Further research must confirm

any hazards associated with milk from a

silicone,enhanced breast, Levine points out.

COPYRIGHT 1994 Science Service, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group