Letter to the editor: The effect of the environment on the mechanical properties of medical grade silicones.

摘要

We have read the recent paper from Leslie et al. with interest. The authors postulate that in vivo failure of sili-cone finger joint implants could be partly attributed to the effects of environmental ageing of the silicone material. They associate this supposition to results of their mechanical (tensile) testing of specimens stored in Ringer's solution, distilled water, and air for up to 27 weeks at 37degC and 4 weeks at 80degC. We have reservations about the relevance of their data as there are a number of erroneous assumptions in analytical procedures and materials selection. The most evident error was the selection of a Dow Corning material, which is never used in such implants. The Dow Corning material examined by the researchers is not comparable with the specially-formulated implant material which comprised Silastic~R Finger Joint Implants, Swanson Design.