Three women who developed a Sjogren-like disease after having silicone
breast implants are described. The patients were seen at the National
University of Athens, a tertiary referral center for Greece. All
patients had some suggestion of a Sjogren-like illness but had negative
objective eye evaluations for keratoconjunctivitis sicca, and negative
autoantibodies to Ro(SS-A) and La(SS-B) cellular antigens. The minor
salivary gland biopsies were characterized by only mild lymphocytic
infiltrates in one who presented with submandibular and parotid gland
enlargement, and by intense fibrosis in the other two. The experiences
of these patients and others described previously suggest to us that
with certain genetic settings and hormonal milieu, silicons breast
implants may accelerate or even initiate the development of certain
autoimmune-like phenomena such as sicca complex
