Helium Plasma Effect on Breast Stromal-Enriched Lipograft: A Case Report

Autologous fat transfer for large volume augmentation, reconstructive, and cosmetic purposes has become more popular due to the inherent biocompatibility, accessibility, and low cost. For volume augmentation, the retention of grafted fat is unpredictable. Several approaches to autologous fat transfer have prepared the donor fat and/or the recipient-site increase fat graft retention as well as the predictability of the retention. This study is the first clinical report on the combination of radiofrequency helium plasma pretreatment of the recipient site and a cell-assisted lipotransfer technique for enhanced fat graft retention. One patient underwent autologous breast augmentation using the stromal-enriched lipograft technique to process the fat prior to injection. Only the right breast received pretreatment using radiofrequency helium plasma after infiltration. The processed fat was injected using a droplet style injector. The patient was followed for 2 years and underwent breast MRI examinations for measurement of the graft volume. The overall fat graft survival after 12 months for the stromal-enriched lipograft was 63%, whereas the survival for the stromal-enriched lipograft in combination with radiofrequency helium plasma was 89%. The addition of biostimulatory techniques to prepare the recipient site for breast augmentation enhanced the fat graft retention. Further clinical studies using radiofrequency helium plasma are required to justify using this modality as a recipient-site preparation technique.