Ty,
A while back, someone brought up the question of silicon use in the NeoDisc, relating it to concerns with breast implants. This is a complex issue to sort through…
You may recall that I’ve been intensively researching bacterial biofilms for several years now. I am sharing my research with the public on the biofilmcommunity.org site; Dr. Tom Webster’s video interview is in the ADRSupport Cutting Edge forum, where our interview explored the material aspects of implant materials/design…focusing on bacterial biofilms and their role in implant failure.
To be fair, every material out there for implants is not completely biofilm-resistant. At least that’s my conclusion based on interviews with some of the top biofilm scientists. Some are just “better” than others. And believe it or not, this is still a new area of science.
That said, I would be concerned about silicon products. Picking up on Sahuaro’s comment from 2006, I dug up this article on diagnostics performed on failed breast implants. Read it carefully. Bear in mind:
- Culturing technology for bugs is 150 years old. Far superior molecular diagnostics are available now and practically negate the possibility of false negatives; this problem is touched on within this article below.
- All materials are susceptible to biofilm formation(s), but that doesn’t mean every instance will lead to failure. Our bodies are loaded with biofilms of “commensal” or friendly bacteria. As far as we know, the long-term infection rates for disc replacements are very, very low. The acute cases are more obvious and some are (very personally) described here in this community.
- Note also that biofilm-based infections can be “sub-clinical,” and chronic. This compares starkly to “acute” infections which are more apt to be diagnosed & treated.
See these articles and links:
Detection of subclinical infection in significant breast implant capsules.
Detection of subclinical infection in significant ... [Plast Reconstr Surg. 2003] - PubMed result
Subclinical infection as a possible cause of significant breast capsules.
Netscher DT.
Plast Reconstr Surg. 2005 Apr 15;115(5):1426-7; author reply 1427-8.
(No abstract!)
OK, is this too much information?! G’night for now.
