Venezuela offers to pay for breast implant removal

(CBS/AP)The Venezuelan government has offered to pay for surgeries for women to remove defective French-made breast implants.

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Women with implants made by the now-defunct French company Poly Implant Prothese may go to hospitals that carry out plastic surgery to have the implants removed according to, the state-run Venezuelan News Agency reported.

Health Minister Eugenia Sader said Tuesday that the free procedure won't include replacement implants.

"Those patients are running a risk," Sader said. However, she said, women need not seek emergency care and instead may visit hospitals at their convenience.

France's health system has recommended that women with the PIP implants get them replaced, and has agreed to pay for surgeries. In Brazil and Argentina, health officials have only recommend checkups.

It's unclear how many women have the PIP implants in Venezuela, where breast enlargement surgery is popular and doctors say the French implants used to be widely used.

An estimated 40,000 women in the country have breast enlargement surgery each year, said Dr. Marisol Graterol, president of the Venezuelan Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is an outspoken critic of the surgery's popularity, saying women shouldn't be sold on an image that big bosoms are attractive.

The plastic surgery society recommended last week that women with PIP breast implants see a doctor to have them checked. Graterol said doctors should decide depending on each patient's situation whether or not the implants need to be removed.

Sales of PIP implants were halted in Venezuela in April 2010, Graterol said.

Plastic surgeon Dr. Henry Saud said he removed ruptured PIP implants from more than 10 patients during the past year. In some cases, his patients hadn't noticed anything wrong and the leaking implants were detected during imaging exams, he said said. In other cases, "they felt discomfort and had swelling."

"It used to be one of the most-used brands," Saud said. He said most of the women opted to replace the PIP implants with those of other brands.