Breast implant
Since the late nineteenth century, breast implants have been used to surgically augment the size (volume), modify the shape (contour), and enhance the feel (tact) of a woman's breasts. In 1895, surgeon Vincenz Czerny effected the earliest breast implant emplacement when he used the patient's autologous adipose tissue, harvested from a benign lumbar lipoma, to repair the asymmetry of the breast from which he had removed a tumor. In 1889, surgeon Robert Gersuny experimented with paraffin injections, with disastrous results.
Adjustable gastric band
The advent of surgical laparoscopy has transformed the field of bariatric surgery and made the gastric band a more appealing option for the surgical management of obesity. In 1992, Prof. Guy-Bernard Cadière was the first to apply an adjustable band (the Kuzmak ASGB device) by the laparoscopic approach. Over the next couple of years, the Kuzmak ASGB was modified to make it suitable for laparoscopic implantation, eventually emerging as the modern lap band. This landmark innovation was driven by Belachew, Cadière, Favretti and O’Brien; the Inamed Development Company engineered the device. The first human laparoscopic implantation of the newly developed lap band was performed by Belachew and le Grand on 1 September 1993 in Huy, Belgium, followed on 8 September, by Cadière and Favretti in Padua, Italy. In 1993, Broadbent in Australia and Catona in Italy, implanted non-adjustable (Molina-type) gastric bands by laparoscopy. In 1994, the first international laparoscopic band workshop was held in Belgium and the first on the SAGB in Sweden.