Silicone surgery
Silicone surgery
I have just returned from lecturing and demonstrating
dermatologic surgical techniques at hospitals and universities in
Sumatra. While there, I read with great interest your lead
article in the Sunday, May 6, 2001 paper on silicone.
I was privileged to be invited to do surgery on multiple
ladies with impure silicone reactions while in Solo Tampil
menarik tanpa silikon (Beauty without silicone). I was a keynote
speaker on the subject "Complications of silicone injections" and
"Beauty without complications of silicone" at a seminar in
Jakarta.
The problems evolve not from properly administered pure
medical grade silicone, but from the impure and adulterated
products arriving from China, Taiwan and Thailand, your writers
have determined. However, pure silicone products are used
throughout the medical world by a variety of specialists, and it
panics people to misinterpret this fact.
Artificial impact organs of a variety of types are used
successfully, including breast, testes, chin, nose, ureter, etc.
All are pure, placed in sterile fashion, and excellent for their
respective intended uses. Recent use of a heavy liquid silicone
for eye implant work has gone on successfully, and additional new
products are on the horizon. But none of these are impure,
adulterated or non-sterile, as found in Indonesia, and all are
placed by physicians rather than lay operators.
A comment from a plastic surgeon, Dr. Yefta Moenadjat, quoted
in your paper, is incorrect. Collagen injections do not stimulate
"the formation of natural collagen after each injection". There
is a minimal fibrotic reaction to the bovine (cow skin) product
in some humans, but reliable and permanent collagen is not lain
down after each injection.
Having personally participated in the original clinical
studies on the product these many years ago, biopsy studies of
injected sites failed to confirm Dr. Yefta's claim. Your reading
public is advised to consult with knowledgeable
dermatologists/dermatologic surgeons when any foreign materials
are to be injected into or on their skin.
PROF. DR. LAWRENCE M. FIELD
Foster City, California
USA