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.
St. Joseph Medical Center (Houston)
In the 1950s and 1960s, a number of notable physicians practiced at St. Joseph. Mavis Kelsey, who later founded the multispecialty Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, was a member of the medical staff. The hospital's plastic surgery chief, Dr. Thomas Cronin, met with representatives from Dow Corning in 1961 to discuss alternatives to sponge implants for breast augmentation. Dr. Cronin and his plastic surgery resident Frank Gerow are credited with developing silicone gel implants during those meetings with the company. The Dow Corning Cronin Dacron breast implant was used in 88% of breast augmentation procedures by the early 1970s.