Surgeons yesterday called for a national register of breast implants with mandatory reporting of cases of rupture to identify faulty devices that could pose health risks to women. Patients should also be issued with an "implant passport" recording details of the operation and device used in case of problems later, they said.
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The demand came amid confusion about the true failure rate for the French-made PIP implants used in more than 40,000 British operations, which contained industrial grade silicone and which were sold at one fifth of the price of conventional implants.
Official figures from the UK Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) suggested a failure rate of less than 1 per cent, compared with 5 per cent in France and 7 per cent reported by one British chain of private clinics, Transform. Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, ordered an urgent review after it emerged the MHRA may not have been given full information about the failure rate. The French government has recommended removal of the PIP implants and has offered to pay, but British advice is to leave the implants unless problems occur.
Fazal Fatah, president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), said yesterday: "The MHRA has been caught off-guard. They have relied on the rupture information that they have been given, which shows a rate well below 1 per cent. The problem is that this is a voluntary reporting system and we know a very small proportion of ruptures are reported.
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