ISOLATION AND QUANTITATION OF DEBRIS PARTICLES AROUND FAILED SILICONEORTHOPEDIC IMPLANTS

Silicone elastomer implants have a relatively low rare of complication s, but inflammatory reactions to debris have been reported. To charact erize the size and number of debris particles, we isolated and quantif ied the debris particles present in the periarticular tissues of 10 pa tients with failed silicone wrist, elbow, or finger implants. Five rhe umatoid synovia without implants were used for negative controls. The number of particles ranged from 0.99 to 24.8 x 10(9) per gram (dry wei ght) of tissue, and nearly all particles were silicone, as determined by x-ray spectroscopy. The implantation duration ranged from 3.2 to 10 .6 years, and for the five wrist implants, the number of particles cor related with duration in vivo. The particles were small (mode particle diameter was 0.59 +/- 0.052 mu m). These results suggest that billion s of particles, most of which are smaller than 1 mu m, are present adj acent to failed silicone implants, and may be associated with inflamma tion and bone resorption.