Venezuela offers surgery to remove breast implants - BusinessWeek

CARACAS, Venezuela

Venezuela's top health official says free operations will be provided to women to remove faulty French-made breast implants.

Health Minister Eugenia Sader says women with implants made by the now-defunct French company Poly Implant Prothese may go to any hospital that carries out plastic surgery in order to have the implants removed.

France's health system has recommended that women with the PIP implants get them replaced, and has agreed to pay for surgeries that could total millions of dollars. In Brazil and Argentina, however, health officials just recommend checkups.

According to Venezuela's state news agency, Sader says the free procedure will simply be to remove the implants and will not include replacing them.