The authors did a retrospective cohort study of 13,488 women receiving cosmetic breast implants & 3,936 patients with other types of plastic surgery at 18 plastic surgery practices. After an average of 13 years of follow-up, deficits in overall mortality were found as compared with the general American population for both implant & comparison subjects. Implant patients, however, experienced excess risks of death compared with the general population for brain cancer & suicide. Internal analyses showed a higher overall mortality among the implant subjects than among comparison subjects reflecting increases for respiratory tract & brain cancers & for suicide. (38 refs.)