Fat Grafting Beat Scars When Other Treatments Fail

If you read through our previous entries, you might’ve noticed that we’ve aggressively wrote about fat grafting-another name for fat transfer. This interesting yet relatively new cosmetic procedure has picked up some steam as an effective way to achieve sexy appearance by relocating body fat to a new location, such as breasts or buttocks, where it will serve better as an aesthetic implant. Recently, doctors have found another yet brilliant use for this procedure to treat conditions that has challenged plastic surgeons for years, scars.

Millions of people are suffering from pain, discomfort and difficulty in performing daily activities due to scars caused by burns, birth defects or physical injuries. When these individuals lose hope in getting these hampering scars treated, they revert to addicting pain medicine that brings more harm than good. Luckily, with a new treatment, most of these scar caused problems can be treated easily. The technique, as reported by a study published by Wolters Kluwer Health, involves injecting the patient with a sample of his own fat to effectively reduce contracted scars that results from burns or other causes.

According to the study, fat grafting has shown positive results by relieving hundreds of patients from hard-to-treat scars that caused them pain and constricted motion. The researchers looked upon the unconventional treatment as a new way to repair damaged tissues, when other medical and surgical therapies fail to produce any results.

The surgeons performing the procedure start by suctioning a small amount of fat tissue from the patient's body, often from areas with abundance of fat such as the abdomen, hips or buttock. After collecting and processing the fat, they inject it under the skin around the area of scarring. As a result, the infused fat spread out in different directions, building what the researchers referred to as a "web" of support for the damaged skin and ultimately causing the scar to level out.

When tested on the patients, the treatment made the skin in the scarred area became softer and more flexible and also changed its tone to match that of the surrounding undamaged skin. In consequence, the sufferers have developed an increase scar elasticity and decrease in pain and discomfort. They were able to take on physical activities that otherwise were extremely difficult to perform prior to the procedure. For instance, in patients with facial scarring caused by burns, fat grafting led to improved facial motions such as smile and gestures.

These results took shape only within two weeks, and continued through several months. Tests to assess the skin hardness were carried out by the doctors to further prove the effectiveness of fat transfer against scarring.

Besides helping patients and giving hope to contemporary sufferers, fat grafting also assisted in solving problems caused by surgeries. In one case, a breast cancer patient was left with hard and painful scars following complications from breast reconstruction. Fat grafting helped the doctors to successfully perform another reconstruction that undo the damage inflicted by the earlier surgery.
The mechanism under which fat grafting exerts its power on scars is still not clear yet. Some argue that it could be due to the stem cells found in fat tissue that can evolve into various forms of cells known for their ability in healing wounds and repairing damaged tissues.

Regardless, the interest in fat grating in the realm of plastic surgery has only escalated over the years, thanks to successful trials and continuous studies. Many researchers believe that it wouldn’t be long before fat grafting becomes a standard aesthetic procedure that doctors rely upon to treat problematic scars that don't respond to other treatments.