Clinical Presentation of Mammary Siliconomas

Abstract

Some of the cases that we have seen in our research from 1999 to 2019 are described, in detail, in the current chapter. They exemplify, in our experience, the different ways that patients whose breasts have been injected with liquid silicones can present.

We will begin the presentation with complications that may appear at hour zero, that is, during the silicone injection procedure itself. Then we will describe the complications that may appear over time, from the mildest to the most dramatic, via interactions between the injected material and the organism.

The time of onset of systemic complications can be immediate or delayed and presenting symptomatology can vary. Injections can induce acute pneumonia, which is followed in some patients by respiratory failure. Deaths have been reported as a result of the injection of silicones.

Some of our patients reported systemic complications after having silicones injected into their breasts, which included a flu-like syndrome characterized by fever; meanwhile, the breasts exhibited edema, tenderness, and generalized cutaneous erythema. A 22-year-old patient consulted us for severe systemic complications, which included fever, lymphedema, erythema, and multiple painful nodules. The patient admitted to having self-injected 1.5 l of edible kitchen oil into each breast.

Atención pido al silencio

y silencio a la atención,

que voy en esta ocasión,

si me ayuda la memoria,

a mostrarles que a mi historia

le faltaba lo mejor.

From silence, I ask for attention,

And from attention I ask for silence,

For on this occasion,

If my memory serves me,

I will tell you all that my previous story

Lacked the best parts.

Martín Fierro

José Hernández. Buenos Aires,

Argentina (1834–1886)