Colored silicone for implant safety
An implantable device includes a hollow biocompatible shell and filling material. The shell is configured to be implanted in an organ of a patient. The filling material is configured to fill the shell so as to assume a specified shape of the implantable device, and is visually distinguished from tissue of the organ that surrounds the implantable device.
1. An implantable device, comprising:
a hollow biocompatible shell, configured to be implanted in an organ of a patient; and
filling material, which is configured to fill the shell so as to assume a specified shape of the implantable device, and which is visually distinguished from tissue of the organ that surrounds the implantable device;
wherein the filling material differs in color from the tissue by at least a predefined hue difference, the predefined hue difference is 4 degrees in accordance with a red-green-blue (RGB) hue scale.
2. The implantable device according to claim 1 , wherein the tissue has a first color having a first dominant wavelength, and wherein the filling material has a second color having a second dominant wavelength, which differs from the first wavelength by at least a predefined wavelength difference.
3. The implantable device according to claim 2 , wherein the predefined wavelength difference is 50 nm.
4. The implantable device according to claim 1 , wherein the filling material comprises a fluorescent tracer that is adapted to glow when illuminated with light having a color selected from a list consisting of blue and ultra-violet (UV).
5. The implantable device according to claim 1 , wherein the filling material comprises silicone gel.
6. The implantable device according to claim 1 , wherein the filling material comprises carbon black, which is configured to set a color of the filling material to black.
7. The implantable device according to claim 1 , wherein the filling material comprises barium sulfate, which is configured to set a color of the filling material to white.
8. A method for producing an implantable device, comprising:
providing a hollow biocompatible shell, configured to be implanted in an organ of a patient; and
filling the shell with a filling material, which is configured to assume a specified shape of the implantable device, and which is visually distinguished from tissue of the organ that surrounds the implantable device;
wherein the filling material differs in color from the tissue by at least a predefined hue difference, the predefined hue difference is 4 degrees in accordance with a red-green-blue (RGB) hue scale.
9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the tissue has a first color having a first dominant wavelength, and wherein the filling material has a second color having a second dominant wavelength, which differs from the first wavelength by at least a predefined wavelength difference.
10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the predefined wavelength difference is 50 nm.
11. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the filling material comprises silicone gel.
12. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the filling material comprises a fluorescent tracer that is adapted to glow when illuminated with light having a color selected from a list consisting of blue and ultra-violet (UV).
13. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the filling material is configured to shape a size and a contour of the organ.
14. A method for removing residues of a ruptured implantable device, the method comprising:
identifying in an organ of a patient a rupture of an implantable device, the device comprising:
a hollow biocompatible shell; and
filling material, which is configured to fill the shell so as to assume a specified shape of the implantable device, and which is visually distinguished from tissue of the organ that surround the implantable device;
imaging the organ so as to detect residues of the filling material that are visually distinguished from tissue; and
removing the residues from the organ;
wherein the filling material comprises a fluorescent tracer that is adapted to glow when illuminated with light having a color selected from a list consisting of blue and ultra-violet (UV), and wherein imaging the organ comprises illuminating the organ with the light.
15. The method according to claim 14 , wherein imaging the organ comprises applying a minimal invasive imaging procedure.