Silicone Breast Implants – Part 1
As a medical device, there are five generations of silicone breast implants, each defined by common model-manufacturing techniques.
The modern prosthetic breast was invented in 1961, by the American reconstructive surgeons Thomas Cronin and Frank Gerow. The first augmentation mammoplasty was performed in 1962. There are five generations of the breast implant model types that are filled with silicone gel; each generation of breast prosthesis is defined by common model-manufacturing techniques.
The Cronin–Gerow Implant, prosthesis model 1963, was a silicone rubber envelope-sac, shaped like a teardrop, which was filled with viscous silicone-gel. To reduce the rotation of the emplaced breast implant upon the chest wall, the model 1963 prosthesis was affixed to the implant pocket with a fastener-patch, made of Dacron material which was attached to the rear of the breast implant shell. In the 1970s, manufacturers presented the second generation of breast implant prostheses that featured functional developments and aesthetic improvements to the technology:
The first technological developments were a thinner-gauge device-shell, and a filler gel of low-cohesion silicone, which improved the functionality and the size, appearance, and texture of the silicone-gel breast implant. Yet, in clinical practice, second-generation breast implants proved fragile, and suffered greater incidences of shell rupture, and of filler leakage through the intact device shell. The consequent, increased incidence-rates of medical complications precipitated faulty-product.
The second technological development was a polyurethane foam coating for the shell of the breast implant; the coating reduced the incidence of capsular contracture, by causing an inflammatory reaction that impeded the formation of a capsule of fibrous collagen tissue around the breast implant. Nevertheless, despite that prophylactic measure, the medical use of polyurethane-coated breast implants was briefly discontinued, because of the potential health-risk posed by a carcinogenic by-product of the chemical breakdown of the polyurethane foam coating of the breast implant.
After reviewing the medical data, TDA-induced breast cancer was an infinitesimal health-risk to women with breast implants and did not justify legally requiring physicians to explain the matter to their patients.
The third technological development was the double lumen breast implant device, a double-cavity prosthesis composed of a silicone breast implant contained within a saline breast implant. The two-fold, technical goal. The cosmetic benefits of silicone-gel enclosed in saline solution. A breast implant device the volume of which is post-operatively adjustable. Nevertheless, the more complex design of the double-lumen breast implant suffered a device-failure rate greater than that of single-lumen breast implants.