A Comparison of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Scleroderma Patients with and without Silicone Breast Implants

The influence of silicone breast implants on patients who develop systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and scleroderma are not known. Thirty SLE and 15 scleroderma patients who developed their diseases after under-going augmentation mammoplasty with silicone breast implants were studied. Clinical, laboratory, and treatment features for SLE were compared with age-, sex-, and race-matched controls from our 570-patient cohort. Comparisons were also made with a 75-patient university medical center scleroderma cohort. The SLE implant patients had milder disease but greater frequencies of cutaneous findings, cognitive impairment, and fibromyalgia than SLE patients without implants (p < 0.05). The scleroderma implant group also tended to have milder disease. Of the 45 patients, 26 had their implants removed. Subjective, clinical, and serologic remission after explantation occurred in two of the patients (both with SLE). Twenty-four additional patients had transient subjective improvement or no improvement after explantation; one patient developed malignant hypertension and a scleroderma kidney weeks after explantation.In conclusion, most lupus and scleroderma patients with implants experienced milder, although apparently classical, disease. Dramatic changes in disease course occurred in 3 of the 26 patients immediately after explantation. Because idiopathic disease patients have a 2-10% spontaneous remission rate, more time will be needed to evaluate the natural disease course in the remaining explanted patients.