Prior to the development of prosthetic
breast implants numerous materials were trialed for the purpose of augmenting the female breast. Up until the 1950's materials included autogenous fat and dermal grafts, fat injections, paraffin injections, insertion of glass balls, ivory, rubber, and terylene wool.4,5 These materials frequently led to infection, tissue necrosis and firmness of the breast. The autogenous materials were uniformily troubled by resorption. The 1950-1960's saw the use of many other products. Free injections of hydrocarbons, petroleum jelly, silicone oils, vegetable oils and bees wax were tried and led to many problems including infection, granulomas, fistulas and breast firmness.4,5 During this same time many different types of sponges were developed hoping that soft tissue ingrowth would improve the biocompatibility of these products. Polyvinyl and polyether were the most common sponge materials (figure 2) others included silastic and Teflon. Unfortunately these products were complicated by many of the same problems and were discontinued.
The development of the silicone gel prosthesis in 1962 marked a very important new era in
breast surgery. Since Cronin and Gerow6 first reported its use very few other materials have been used for breast augmentation. This is partly due to the success of silicone devices and also by the subsequent FDA regulation of medical devices that was started shortly after the development of silicone gel devices.
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