Recent Advances on the Application of Negative Pressure External Volume Expansion in Breast Plastic Surgery

External volume expansion (EVE) has been effectively applied as an assistance to fat transplantation on breast plastic surgery. Many indicators and refinements have been made in clinical practice; meanwhile, the related mechanism and more optimized preclinical model also have been explored in experimental studies.

A literature search was conducted using PubMed with the keywords: EVE, negative pressure, breast enlargement, breast augmentation, breast reconstruction, breast plastic surgery and breast aesthetic surgery. Studies dealing with the clinical and preclinical aspects of the subject and also in vitro experiments related to a certain period of negative pressure and adipose-derived cells were selected, and those only focused on negative pressure were excluded.

The indications, contraindications, complications and treatments of EVE in clinical practice were summarized. The experimental studies were mainly classified into two groups (mechanical and translational) according to their contents. Mechanical studies were further divided into inference experimental validation phase studies. For the experimental validation phase, EVE was verified to promote angiogenesis, while it still remained controversial whether it would enhance adipogenesis and cell proliferation.

Clinically, our experience is on the stage of exploration, and there is a lack of standardized guidelines on its clinical application. Experimentally, the previous studies showed some subtly different views on the functional mechanisms. However, it is not enough to regulate the clinical practice yet. Therefore, related basic studies and long-term clinical follow-up are needed.

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