Study Shows Cosmetic Surgery Unaffected by French Implant Scare

Cosmetic surgery is booming worldwide and unaffected by the health scare prompted by a French breast implant company that used substandard silicone, a global body of plastic surgeons said Friday.

The Paris-based IMCAS which represents plastic surgeons and dermatologists, said in a new study that beauty procedures worldwide including liposuctions, breast implants, and Botox injections grew 10.1 percent year-on-year in 2011 to between 3.2 to 3.8 billion euros ($4.1 to 4.9 billion).

The figure this year is set to grow 11.12 percent, said the study, "demonstrating the sector's dynamism."

IMCAS, or the International Master Course on Ageing Skin, is starting its annual conference in Paris non Friday.

More than 400,000 women around the world are believed to have received implants made by now-defunct French firm Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) which was found to have been using industrial-grade silicone gel that caused abnormally high rupture rates.

"One thinks that the PIP affair will have short-term impact," said Laurent Brones, one of the authors of the study.

"There will surely be a negative effect but for a few months and it will be localized," he said.

Brones said PIP was a "small manufacturer" which mainly exported to Europe and Latin America and not major markets like the United States and Asia.

Of the estimated 20 million women with implants worldwide, PIP only represents 1.5 percent with about 300,000 using its product, he said.