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Show Versatile Silicone Silicone finger joint replacement can be used to restore function to hands distorted by disease. tractive than the one she started with. Today she is back home leading her usual social life, delighted with her appearance.” Buried silicone sponges build out cheeks, chins, jaws, and “saddlenose” deformities. Ears torn off in sports, in accidents, or destroyed by a burn, are replaced with a silicone prosthesis shaped like the ear cartilage. In skull fractures, after a neurosurgeon has repaired underlying structures within the cranium,silicone maybe used tofill out the exact shape of the head. An implanted cardiac pacemakers, which keep the heart beating at the right rate, have their electrical connections coated with medical-grade silicone to prevent short-circuiting, andsilicone makes the seal where the wires enter the heart. Believe it or not, silicone penile implants have corrected impotence due to certain physiologic defects. At Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich., even a urethra was rebuilt with a length of silicone rubber tube, and norma] function was maintained even after three years. At New York Hospital, silicone has been recruited for psychological reasons for men wholost their testicles as the result of injury or disease. One of the most impressive lifesaving applications of silicone was invented not by a doctor but by a Philadelphia tool-and-die technician, This chemically produced substanceis finding wide application in plastic surgery neck’s jugular vein, thento the heart, where the excess fluid could be absorbed in the blood stream. The valve had to be sensitive enough to open when the pressure in the brain reached a certain point and tight enough to prevent any back flow from the jugular vein. With his baby’s life at stake, John Holter—who had always been interested in engineering—experimented feverishly in his company’s laboratory. Within a week, he came up with a model, But now doctors told him the valve had to withstand the high temperatures of sterilization. Contacting manufacturers, the determined father heard aboutsilicone. And with silicone, Holter finally devised his valve. Baby Charles, barely alive in an oxygen tent, was operated on again as soon as he wasable to take surgery. The tube, with Holter’s valve, was inserted, and the fluid drained successfully. The Holter silicone Artificial ear frame of silicone serves as cartilage for rebuilding of missing eor. At left are artificial hearts, designed for calves, made of medical-grade silicone coated with Dacron. John Holter. His baby Charles was Hand after surgery. This frequently happens with cancer. To carry on through life, complete reconstruction may be imperative. Some months ago, for instance, a 42-year-old housewife was found to have a very large malignant ulcer of the nose. To get rid of the lifethreatening lesion, most of the nose had to be amputated. How to replace it? In aninitial operation, the surgeon made a skin graft to supply the needed soft tissue. Then, in another operation a few weeks later, the missing cartilage and bone framework were made up with solid silicone carved to the right siape. This has almost the consistency of human cartilage and is flexible enough to withstand tension. “The patient’s nose,” her surgeon reported, “turned out to be moreat- born a victim of hydrocephalus, known as water on the brain and marked by enlargement of the head. In this dread condition, fluid within the skull increases abnormally, swelling the cranium and gradually crushing the brain. Often, as the brain wastes away, the result has been mental retardation or death. |: needed was a sure-fire way of draining off the fluid. At the time, all that surgeons could do was to make a hole in the skull and reduce tne pressure. But then the hole had to be closed again. This was done for Charles, but in a short time the pressure built up again. As the pressure on the baby’s brain mounted, his condition worsened. Why, asked Holter, couldn’t someone make a workable brain tube. A surgeon explained the difficult problem: there must be a tiny efficient shunt valve attached to the tube from the cranium cavity to the ly the liquid varietyis still considered an “experimental drug” with only eight U.S. medical specialists legally permitted to conductclinical investigations with it, and even they are doing no breast injections. As an injectable, it hasn’t been approved by the Federal Drug Administration. Nevertheless, certain unethical doctors have obtained industrial-type silicones—not the purified medical grade—and injected them for mammaryinflation. In many cases, this kind of silicone wandered in the body, producing undesired results. valve and two other types have by now saved more than 300,000 children all over the world who were born with hydrocephalus. Besides such solid forms as the Holter device, silicones come in fluids. Burn patients have been immersed in liquid silicone baths to reduce pain, risk of infection, and wasting away. The fluid type is also effective as a protective skin spray for amputees’ limbs. The big question surrounding fluid silicone is its internai use to enlarge women’s breasts or to fill in wrin- kles and other facial defects. Official- On the other hand,silicone gel implants, requiring a surgeon, are available in eight sizes (from “mini” to “large extra-fill’”), and these have proved safe and effective in cases of breast deformities. In the overview,it’s clear that the amazing silicones are performing vi- tal roles in enhancing man’s livability. As knowledge of the material grows, greater strides toward successful replacement of body parts are expected. With an artificial heart, substitute organs, and rejuvenated face, ultimately we may see theSilicone Man among us. @ Family Weekly, August 2, 1970 zZ |