Saline fill of silicone prosthesis during mammaplasty augmentation

Abstract

An assembly for sterile fluid filling of a silicone prosthesis with saline or other fluids from a sterile container having a neck portion screw-threaded in the first sense includes a syringe, a generally tubular connector and a releasable connection between the tubular connector and the syringe. The syringe has a liquid ingress/egress opening at a first end thereof, and the tubular connector completely surrounds this opening and connects the syringe to the container for sterile filling of the syringe with saline from the container. The releasable connection between the tubular connector and the syringe functions so that once the syringe is filled with liquid from the container, the syringe may be detached from the tubular connector while the tubular connector remains in screw-threaded engagement with the container neck. The releasable connection may be a screw-threaded engagement between the tubular connector and the syringe having a second sense, opposite the first sense, of the container neck screw-threaded portion. Alternatively, the releasable connection can comprise a frangible connecting member that fractures when subjected to a shearing action. Augmentation mammaplasty is practiced utilizing the assembly by implanting a silicone prosthesis beneath breast and sequentially filling the syringe with saline of sufficient volume to completely fill the silicone prosthesis, connecting the syringe to the prosthesis, and completely filling the prosthesis with saline from the syringe without detachment of the syringe from connection with the prosthesis.