NHS medical director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh have said after a review of the global health care scandal that the faulty PIP breast implants does not pose any long term risk to the women.

Keogh pointed out that the implants are twice as likely to rupture as other brands and concluded that even through patients may suffer irritation and swelling of the lymph nodes in case of a leak, it will not have any long term affect on their health.

As many as 47,000 British women are believed to have undergone surgeries and were fixed with the faulty impansts. Initially it was thought that around 40,000 women in the UK. The additional women were identified after investigations into allegations that the company might have been using the sub standard implants longer than earlier thought.

UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency found that the implants made before 2001 were also of sub standard quality and posed a risk to the patients. PIP sold as many as 300,000 implants around the world, which were found to be harmful to the health of the women. The implants were found to be with industrial-grade silicone gel and were linked with risks of cancer. The company was closed down in France and ban was imposed on the implants.

In the UK, several thousand women received implants from various medical facilities and about 2,000 of them had them for medical reasons under the National Health Service. Some women are pursuing legal actions against clinics that used implants.

Professor Keogh said, "This has been an incredibly worrying time for women. Repeated tests on different batches of PIP implants have been carried out in the UK, France and Australia according to international standards. Those tests have shown that the implants are not toxic and therefore we do not believe they are a threat to the long-term health of women who have PIP implants."