INFORMAZIONE SUGLI IMPIANTI MAMMARI IN SILICONE E RISVOLTI PSICOLOGICI NELLE PAZIENTI

The authors clarify what has been said on the dangers of silicone prostheses and upon their use in reconstructive and cosmetic plastic surgery. The four points taken into account by the American FDA (Food and Drug Administration) to define such prostheses dangers are analysed. A clinical and psychological study has been undertaken to investigate the effects of the knowledge of the possible toxicity of the prostheses on patients awaiting post-mastectomy breast reconstruction and on those who already had reconstrutive surgery. It has therefore been possible to know what patients felt about this event, which alters the meaning of breast reconstruction. Reconstructive surgery has thus changed from a favourable event to be hoped for into a stressful one reminding of the known sense of insecurity. Patients, who were awaiting the reconstruction and regarded the prosthesis as an important part of the restoration of what the first operation had destroyed, could find it a source of anxiety instead.