NEW YORK, Apr 18 (Reuters Health) - Resurfacing the skin with a carbon dioxide laser is a popular way to erase wrinkles. But this anti-aging treatment could be hazardous for people who have had silicone injections, according to Philadelphia researchers.

Silicone injections for "filling in" wrinkles became popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The injections produced scarring in many patients, and are now illegal in many US states. Collagen and other Food and Drug Administration-approved "fillers" have largely replaced injected silicone.

In 1986, a plastic surgeon reported that "an incandescent flash of yellow-orange flame" burst forth from a patient's breast when he was using a laser to remove silicone deposits from her ruptured breast implant.

To investigate whether this "silicone flash" is a threat today to patients with silicone deposits in their skin, Dr. Warren Zager and colleagues from Jefferson Medical College conducted a series of experiments. They observed what happened when they exposed tiny droplets of silicone fluid to carbon dioxide lasers, and also tested skin samples that had been injected with silicone.

They found the "silicone flash" does indeed occur, and it has the potential to burn and scar the skin. They published their findings in the April issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery.

People who have had silicone injections should not have carbon dioxide laser skin resurfacing, the researchers advise. Instead, they recommend, silicone deposits should be removed surgically.

"This is accurate. It's important, but it's probably not a large issue," Dr. Brian Kinney, a Los Angeles plastic surgeon and clinical assistant professor of plastic surgery at the University of Southern California, told Reuters Health. "It is probably not a huge problem with actual live patients."

Kinney notes that the original "silicone flash" occurred when a doctor was removing a ruptured silicone implant with a laser, which is not a normal practice. Instead, the remnants would usually be removed with a scalpel, he explained.

Also, Kinney notes, the Philadelphia researchers' studies were done with fresh droplets of liquid silicone. Silicone injection material that has been in a patient's body for decades, he explained, would be solid, like "caulk," and would not produce the same effect when exposed to a laser.

But exposing silicone-injected skin to a laser could indeed be dangerous, he adds, because silicone injections produce scarring and altered blood flow. Plus, the laser itself can burn the skin and increase blood flow. For this reason, Kinney said, a person who has had a silicone injection and is considering laser resurfacing treatment should inform his or her doctor about the injection.

Using a laser on skin over a silicone breast implant could also be hazardous, he noted.

Laser skin resurfacing itself is not risk-free, study co-author Dr. David Reiter told Reuters Health. "There can be prolonged redness and irritation of the skin, scarring, pigment changes, and other rarer local effects."

　　From ReutersHealth