The earliest known breast implant was undertaken in 1895 by Austrian surgeon Vincenz Czerny (1842-1916). Czerny transplanted a large lipoma (a benign tumor composed of fatty tissue) from a patient's flank to create new breasts in a woman who had undergone a mastectomy. Details of the outcome went unrecorded.
In the early twentieth century paraffin-wax injections were used to augment breast size, but discontinued due to disastrous complications such as "wax cancer." Other substances tried included ivory, glass balls, ground rubber, and ox cartilage.
In the 1920s transplants of fatty tissue were attempted, where fat was surgically removed from the abdomen and buttock area and transferred to the breasts. The procedure was unsuccessful since the body quickly absorbed the fat, leaving the breasts in a lumpy, asymmetrical condition. However, modern transplants using the patient's own fat or muscle tissue are now much more likely to produce good results.
Otherwise, there are two main types of breast implant: saline-filled and silicone-gel-filled implants. Saline implants, first manufactured in France in 1964, use a silicone elastomer shell filled with salt water. These implants are empty when they are inserted, so the scar is smaller than that for silicone implants.
Silicone implants, first developed by plastic surgeons Thomas Cronin and Frank Gerow in 1962, have a silicone shell that is filled with silicone prior to the surgery being performed. After sporadic reports of silicone gel causing connective tissue disorders, implants have been made of more stable substances to eliminate the possibility of silicone migration.
