Polytetrafluoroethylene

General information

Polytetrafluoroethylene (Polytef) is widely used in industry. “Teflon” is used in household appliances to avoid sticking of food. Polytef paste is used for a variety of medical purposes, including replacement grafts in vascular surgery, vocal cord or fold augmentation, and correction of vesicoureteric reflux and urinary incontinence.

The use of polytetrafluoroethylene has become controversial because of reports of granulomatous reactions and distant migration of the material. Foreign body giant cell responses to the polytetrafluoroethylene implant (“teflonoma”) have become a serious complication, and animal models have clearly shown a classic foreign body reaction with multinucleated giant cells, granuloma formation, and migration of Teflon into surrounding muscle after Teflon injection [ ]. Teflon-related granuloma occurred in 1.3% of a series of 155 patients with trigeminal neuralgia treated by microvascular decompression using Teflon [ ]. Such granulomas can cause compression syndromes at various locations after varying periods of time.

• A patient who had previously undergone suboccipital microvascular decompression for hemifacial spasm presented 3 years postoperatively with a progressive asymmetric sensorineural hearing loss. At surgery a granuloma was found displacing the structures of the internal auditory canal. Histologically, there was evidence of a Teflon fiber-induced giant cell granuloma [ ].

Postoperative failure after Teflon sling repair of a rectal prolapse is probably due to poor technique [ ].

Organs and systems