The Department of Health has said less than a handful of women in the Republic have had Trilucent breast implants, which may be linked to cancer and birth defects.
Following a warning by British health authorities that women with these implants, which contain a soya oil filling, should have them removed, a Department spokesman said only one woman in the Republic had been confirmed as having received them. About 5,000 women in Britain had them and 100 in Northern Ireland.
In March last year the Swiss manufacturer, Lipomatrix, recalled them from the British market. The Department of Health established the implants were distributed to two private clinics here and the company agreed to a withdrawal from the Irish market.
Advanced Cosmetic Surgery, Ireland's largest cosmetic surgery company which performs up to 50 breast augmentations a month, said last year it had used Trilucent implants twice since the early 1990s.
The British Department of Health banned the implants in response to 74 adverse incident reports since 1995. They were marketed as a natural "safer" alternative to silicone gel and did not block mammogram X-rays.
The full text of the UK warning is available at www.medicaldevices.gov.uk/hn2000(05).htm
