Diagnostic Dilemmas Caused by Silicones

Abstract

The symptoms and degree of clinical involvement of the breast through the injection of liquid silicones vary widely. The manifestations sometimes do not show up immediately after the administration of the silicone, but within a few months or until almost more than a decade after its implementation, these being the product of the immune reaction to a foreign body.

It is important to point out that mammary siliconomas impede an adequate clinical examination, because the inflammatory reaction in the mammary parenchyma makes it difficult to evaluate through mammography, mammary ultrasound, or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). One thing that is of no doubt is that the prognosis of breast cancer is highly contingent upon its early diagnosis. There also is no doubt that siliconomas interfere with and, thereby, may delay the early detection of breast cancer, due to the numerous difficulties they cause in breast evaluation.

Triste suena mi guitarra

Y el asunto lo requiere;

ninguno alegrías espere

sino sentidos lamentos,

de aquel que en duros tormentos

nace, crece, vive y muere.

“Martín Fierro”.José Hernández, Buenos Aires,Argentina (1834–1886)

My guitar is sad-sounding

as the matter requires.

Expect no joys,

for you will hear only sorrowful sentiments

about a man who in such horrible torment,

is born, grows, lives and dies.

“Martín Fierro”.José Hernández, Buenos Aires,Argentina (1834–1886)