Stay Away From Liquid Silicone Injections.

Implications: Only FDA approved fillers administered by experienced, licensed physicians should be injected into patients.  Also, the small volumes that are used today should not pose systemic problems that were seen in this article.

Analysis: Although the article only describes three patient complications, the seriousness of high volume injections done by someone without the proper credentials and experience, cannot be emphasized enough.  In this day and age, cosmetic procedures (operative and nonoperative) have become increasingly more popular among non-physicians and non-qualified physicians.  Although injecting fillers into a patient seems to be a benign procedure, there can be serious complications.  Liquid silicone should never be injected in the face, since it has been associated with many complications, (for example, granulomas) and has been surpassed by new, more effective, FDA approved fillers, which yield marvelous results.  Injectable fillers are meant to fill small areas and should never be used in the quantities and volume described in this article. 

The bottom line is that injectable fillers should be looked at as a medical procedure, and should only be done by experienced, licensed physicians, who put the interests of the patient first, and their financial gains second.

Alan Zaccaria, MD
Chief, Plastic Surgery, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, NJ.