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Published in

BioMed Central, Journal of Medical Case Reports, 1(8), 2014

DOI: 10.1186/1752-1947-8-71

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Hypercalcemia in a male-to-female transgender patient after body contouring injections: a case report

Journal article published in 2014 by Koppany Visnyei, Maria Samuel, Laura Heacock ORCID, Jose A. Cortes
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Abstract Introduction Body contouring injections by non-licensed providers are frequently sought out by a subset of the male-to-female transgender community. Although short-term side effects such as pulmonary embolism and injection site infection are well known, long-term consequences of such practices are less well studied. Case presentation Here we describe the case of a 40-year-old African American male-to-female transgender patient who presented to our institution with hypercalcemia and acute renal failure secondary to body contouring injections with industrial strength silicone by non-licensed providers, a decade prior to her visit. Work-up revealed an extensive granulomatous inflammatory process in the injection area resulting in electrolyte abnormalities and kidney injury. The patient’s lab results and symptoms responded well to long-term corticosteroid treatment and correlated with treatment adherence. Conclusion Affected patients can sometimes present with unusual clinical symptoms many years after silicone injections. In a constantly growing transgender community that often utilizes non-licensed providers for silicone injections, the medical community will likely face an increasing number of patients with long-term side effects of such practices. Therefore, it is imperative for physicians to recognize such cases promptly and initiate potentially life-saving treatment.