History Presents to Our Clinic: One of the First Nipple Sparing Mastectomy Patients and One of the First Silicone Breast Reconstructions

Abstract

Nipple sparing mastectomies had almost no recorded relevance in the literature, until the early 1990s, regarding aesthetic surgical outcomes. Silicone-based breast implant surgery began to take place in the early 1960s as these prosthetics were developed by 2 plastic surgeons from Texas: Frank Gerow and Thomas Cronin. Dow Corning began large-scale manufacturing and the first reported case took place in 1962. Our patient, an 85-year-old woman, was seemingly a pioneer for both of these surgical treatments, as she underwent a prophylactic nipple-sparing mastectomy in 1959, followed by silicone implant placement in 1974. Almost 50 years later, her unusual presentation caused concern for breast cancer, however was implant rupture with silicone granuloma formation.