Non-Destructive Testing of Virgin Mammary Prostheses: First Step in an Attempt to Characterize the Changes That Occur with These Implants in Vivo

Physical characterization of virgin gelfilled mammary prostheses has been achieved through a series of experiments involving only nondestructive test methods. The physical properties measured were density, luminous transmittance, coefficient of friction, compressive stiffness, dynamic response to a sine wave vibration and NMR relaxation times, T1 and T2. Although the collected data was intended to serve as a reference for quantification of the degradation phenomena observed in explanted mammary prostheses, they also proved useful for quality control purposes, suggesting that some of the tested products did not fully conform to the relevant ASTM standard specifications.