Simultaneous Presentation of Silicone and Silica Granuloma

Abstract

We report a case of a 45-year-old woman who presented a simultaneous foreign-body granuloma reaction to silicone in her face and to silica in the elbow and knee. The patient had received silicone injections in her face 7 years earlier and had suffered a motorcycle accident when she was young. Changes suggestive of silicone were observed in the biopsy obtained from the face, and silica was detected in the biopsy taken from the elbow, confirmed by polarized light and X-ray microanalysis. The presence of polarizable foreign matter in cutaneous epithelioid granulomas should alert to the diagnosis of sarcoidosis.