Private clinic has 180 PIP implant patients

A television report says 180 patients at the private Laclinic in Montreux have received implants made by a French firm at the centre of a breast implant scare.

At present 280 women across Switzerland are known to have had the implants, made by the now bankrupt company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP).

Laclinic is offering its patients an operation to remove the implants for SFr5,000 ($5,260), rather than the usual SFr10,000, according to a French-speaking television report broadcast on Tuesday evening. On it, the beauty clinic’s director said Laclinic was also a victim of the implant producer.

The Swiss medicine regulator, Swissmedic, is sticking to its line that the faulty implants should not be removed as a rule. This decision has come in for criticism from a new victims’ association in Geneva.

Around 300,000 women around the world bought PIP implants before the company was shut down in 2010. The implants were found to be not filled with medical-grade silicone.
 
Tests show the implant covers have an increased risk of rupturing – a factor which prompted France to advise 30,000 women with the implants to have them removed as a preventive measure. The Czech Republic, Germany and the Netherlands are all giving the same advice.