Surgeons Report Success with Fat Grafting for Breast Reconstruction
U.S.-based biotech company Cytori Therapeutics is reporting that their fat grafting procedure has been used successfully for breast reconstruction by British surgeons.
The company, which calls its procedure RESTORE, said that clinical outcomes reported at the Association of Breast Surgery Conference in Manchester, England, earlier this month suggest the procedure is a viable breast reconstruction option.
The report from the surgeons was the result of an independent study of 23 patients who received the company’s adipose-derived regenerative cell-enhanced fat grafting to correct breast-contour defects after cancer treatment or benign conditions, such as implant complications. The patients were treated between September 2008 and November 2010, and 82 percent (19 patients) reported good to excellent results, with a mean satisfaction score of 5.1 (1 being worst, 6 being best). The study findings also showed a low complication rate.
We first reported on Cytori’s work on using stem cells from fat to help the body rebuild itself last year. For breast reconstruction, liposuction is done to harvest fat cells from the abdomen, and then the fat is injected into the company’s Celution System where a centrifuge separates the fat cells from the stem and regenerative cells and prepares the cells for injection. Finally, a surgeon injects the cells into the breast.
While Cytori is reporting promising results, it should be noted that earlier this month a joint task force of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) released a position statement on the use of stem cells in aesthetic surgery that concluded that while there is tremendous potential for the future use of stem cells in aesthetic surgical procedures, the scientific evidence and other data are very limited in terms of assessing the safety or efficacy of stem cell therapies in aesthetic medicine.