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[Micro-re-injection of autologous fat]
C Collet1, S Laversanne1, P Haen1
1Service de chirurgie maxillo-faciale, stomatologie et plastique de la face, hôpital d'instruction des armées Laveran, Marseille, 34, boulevard Laveran, BP 60149, 13384 Marseille cedex 13, France.
Introduction:
Autologous fat graft has become the gold-standard defect filling technique. "Lipostructure(©)" was described by Colman in 1994. It is perfectly codified and gives excellent results. The filling of superficial skin layers with the routine technique is difficult. It can be performed with a new technique developed by G. Magalon called micro-re-injection of autologous fat.
Technique:
The adipose tissue is harvested without any incision, using a specific 2 mm cannula. The harvested fat tissue is centrifuged according to Coleman's recommendations. Re-injection of purified fat is performed with 0.8 mm specific cannulas, without any incision. 500-micron grafts are injected in multiple layers in the subdermal stratum.
Discussion:
This autologous fat graft respects Coleman's procedure principles and preserves the histological structure. This technique is well adapted for facial defects, especially for the lips. It is more precise because the fat deposits are thinner. It does not require any skin incision. It proved to be less painful for our patients, and there was less postoperative edema than with the reference technique. Micro re-injection broadens the indications of autologous fat tissue graft in the fields of plastic (lip, eyelids) and reconstructive (retractile scar) surgery.
