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Essay Archive - Breast Implants
Breast Implants
One of the first uses of silicone in a medical implant came in the form of
lifesaving tubes implanted into young children to funnel excess fluid from the
brain into the chest cavity, where the fluid could be safely metabolized and
excreted. Since these "shunts" were first used, in the late 1950s, silicone in
various forms has come to be an important part of many implants. "It is used in
tracheotomy tubes, in artificial lenses for the eye, in artificial heart valves
and in facial implants for birth defects or re-constructive surgery after
cancer" (Ames 1).
The most widely used implementation of silicone is thro....
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