Breast augmentation
The modern prosthetic breast was invented in 1961, by the American plastic surgeons Thomas Cronin and Frank Gerow, and manufactured by the Dow Corning Corporation; in due course, the first augmentation mammoplasty was performed in 1962. There are five generations of medical device technology for the breast-implant models filled with silicone gel; each generation of breast prosthesis is defined by common model-manufacturing techniques.
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.