Artikel
Failure of Silicone Breast Implants – New Insights by Mapping the Mechanical Properties of Implant Shells
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Veröffentlicht: | 10. September 2013 |
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Gliederung
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This talk summarizes the knowledge on rupture of gel-filled silicone breast implants which is an open question since the first implantation in 1962. We present recent progress which was made by a mapping of the mechanical properties of the shell material together with a statistical failure analysis by means of a Weibull fit. Reference implants and intact as well as ruptured explants are tested after several years in vivo by tensile tests. Up to 110 dumbbell-shaped specimens per implant are measured allowing a detailed mapping of the mechanical properties of the silicone shell. Therefore, it is possible to illustrate the obtained results of the tensile tests by mapping the measured values of the implants in form of a contour plot revealing novel insights. The contour plots clearly reveal that the mechanical behaviour (e.g. stress at break) varies significantly over the shell. Additionally, a map is proposed which clearly shows separated clusters for the different manufacturers and product categories indicating a large variety of shell resilience