[About prions..]

Abstract

Iatrogenic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) was first reported in 1974, in a 55-year-old woman whose symptoms started 18 months following corneal implant surgery. The transplant donor died of CJD. More recently, the epidemy of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the U.K., and the reported cases of iatrogenic CJD due to extractive pituitary hormone injections, emphasized the problems of its etiology and the way these neurodegenerative diseases get transmitted. A new infectious pathogen was described as a prion: "small proteinaceous infectious particle", responsible of transmissible neurodegenerative diseases. The lethal evolution of these diseases, and the complete absence of preventive procedures are fearful regarding the extension of the disease, specially during the procedure of grafting originating from possibly infected people whose screening is currently impossible. It is mandatory for the surgeon to update its knowledges including the legal bylaws regarding a good surgical prevention. One must be certain the implant, wether autologous or heterologous, is completely free of disease, mainly in aesthetic surgery. This paper attempts to summarise this topics. One must bear in mind that the current knowledges could soon turn obsolete with a constant progression of scientific research and of the epidemiologic data.