Soft tissue response to silicones

Abstract

Although the term ’silicone’ refers to a group of organic silicone compounds, the one most commonly used in medicine is composed of a polymer known as dimethypolysiloxane (DMPS). In silicone gel the polymer is cross-linked; the more cross-linking, the more solid is the gel. Liquid silicone consists of glucose-linked DMPS polymer chains. Silicones first became commercially available in 1943, with the first subdermal implantation of silicone occurring in the late 1940s [1-3]. Silicones have since been developed for a wide variety of medical applications, most notably in joint and breast prostheses.