Orange County Fat Grafting
The natural aging process for most people can have a dramatic affect on their facial features. Normally as people get older, the layer of fatty tissue that lies just beneath the skin starts to shrink. As this layer of fat that supports your skin gets thinner, your face’s shape can change. Your cheeks may flatten or you may develop wrinkles around your eyes and mouth as a result of this disappearing support. Many cosmetic surgeons will advise a patient to have a facelift to correct for these issues by stretching the skin of the face tighter and eliminating some of the problems. Other options include injecting a filler material under the skin to augment the fat layer and provide the lacking support for your skin. Even though these are effective options for most patients, there is a newer approach that solves this problem in a more natural way with less risk and expense.
Fat grafting is a procedure that was pioneered by Dr. Sadati and has been used for some time in his practice in Orange County. This process allows the doctor to transfer some of the patients own fat tissue from other areas of their bodies where it is not wanted to replace the layer of support needed on their faces. In essence, you are simply replacing the missing fat tissue that was present when you were younger with other fat tissue from your own body. This is a very natural and successful approach for treating these cosmetic problems that can deliver amazing results. Fat grafting also requires far less surgery than other options do and offers a quicker recovery time with similar results.
Dr. Sadati has used this technique with his patients to correct for a number of facial issues including wrinkles, hallow cheeks or jowls, lip enhancement, nasolabial folds and lower eyelid adjustments. To ensure a high degree of success with the procedure, Dr. Sadati includes the addition of Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) when performing the procedure. This material comes from the patient’s own blood and improves the ability of the grafting to succeed. It also shortens the recovery period needed and provides for more consistent results over time.
What is PRP?
Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) is rich in variety of valuable natural growth factors such as PDGF (Platelet Derived Growth Factor), and TGF-β1 (Transforming Growth Factor β1). These Growth factors are known to be important in initiation and progression of wound healing.
Fat Grafting with PRP article - American Journal of Cosmetic Surgery
How is PRP Created?
At the time of procedure, a small amount of blood is drawn, and centrifuged to isolate the platelet rich plasma (PRP) layer from the blood cell and pure plasma portions. When ready, surgeon will add the PRP directly to the fat. This technique provides a very concentrated group of natural growths factors to accelerate the complex healing processes and helps fat cell to become a viable and permanent tissue.
Where Are PRP-Enhanced Fat Grafts Most Used?
* Sagging or Flattening of Cheek (Naturally occurs with the aging face)
* Chin-Jowl Areas
* Lips
* Nasolabial Folds
* Wrinkles of The Face and Hands
* Breasts (instead of implants)
* Buttocks
* Calves and Various Depressions
* Fat grafting with PRP to lips
* Fat grafting with PRP to cheek and nasolabial folds and lower lid fat removal
* INCLUDEPICTURE
* MERGEFORMATINET
* Free Fat Transfer to Breast
Understanding how PRP containing our body’s natural growth factors can help fat graft survival and accelerate the healing process.
How long has Prp been used?
PRP has been used clinically for over a decade. Leading clinicians in specialties such as dental, ENT, Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, Orthopedics, Cardiovascular, Plastic Surgery, and Wound Healing routinely use PRP to deliver a cocktail of natural, bioactive growth factors.
How could Prp be used for any surgery?
The use of PRP varies from procedure to procedure. PRP is generally applied topically to the wound site. It can be used to control bleeding in applications such as cardiovascular and orthopedics. PRP is often applied to bone grafts and soft tissue grafts to stabilize the graft material. PRP is used to help fixate bone grafts as well as accelerate bone growth in orthopedic and dental procedures. PRP is also used to seal wounds and accelerate soft tissue healing in facial plastic and cosmetic surgeries.
Why is Prp enriched with growth factors prefered over other products or methods?
PRP is the only available product that contains elevated levels of all your natural occurring growth factors. These factors are maintained in precisely the same ratios found circulating in your body. Although recombinant products are available, these products are usually synthetic derivatives of a single growth factor. Fibrin glues are another product readily available to the physician. However, the fibrin glues currently marketed do not contain any growth factors and are virally inactivated derivatives of blood components drawn from other donors.
Is Prp Safe?
PRP is derived from a small quantity of your own blood drawn at the time of surgery. The PRP is made point-of-care at the time of surgery and under physician’s control. Also, since the PRP is made from your own blood, it is insulated against the risk of disease transmission.
Who makes Prp?
Historically, the production of PRP at the time of surgery was complex, time consuming, expensive, and required large blood volumes. The process often involved outside personnel and a transfusion of blood products. The recent introduction of small automated, office based PRP systems makes the benefits of PRP practical in the office and outpatient setting. Now, your surgeon or nurse can prepare PRP in parallel with the surgical procedure.
How is Prp made?
The surgeon draws approximately 30 cc of your blood at the time of surgery. The blood is placed in a specialized centrifuge that spins and automatically separates the red blood cells from the plasma. The plasma is then further centrifuged to concentrate the autologous platelets and hence your natural growth factors. The PRP is then available for your surgeon to use as needed. The entire process takes less than 15 minutes and adds no extra time to the surgical procedure.
Improved Fat Graft Volume Retention Through Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP)
Autologous fat grafting, also known as fat transfer or fat injection, has long been a staple of cosmetic and reconstructive surgery. Fat grafts have proven very effective in the reconstruction of soft tissue defects, particularly for facial plastic and reconstructive procedures. Autologous fat is a versatile medium which offers many advantages: it is soft and pliable, readily available, abundant, and able to be harvested with minimal risk. Despite these benefits, however, there has always been one significant disadvantage associated with autologous fat grafting, the unpredictable and often inconsistent graft survival rate. In order to achieve the desired volume and symmetry, it is often necessary to overcorrect soft tissue volume defects and perform multiple procedures.
Promising new evidence has shown that Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) can enhance the fat graft survival rate. PRP is a type of autologous plasma, which contains a platelet concentration that is five to six times greater than the normal baseline levels, having 1,000,000 platelets in a 5ml volume of plasma.
To harvest PRP, a whole blood sample is obtained from the patient and then prepared in the laboratory. PRP may be used directly in its isolated form or in the form of a platelet gel. For autologous fat grafting, fat is removed through traditional liposuction techniques and the PRP may then be added directly to the graft material in a gel form.
Studies have shown that the PRP enhanced grafts have a higher potential for graft acceptance and retention than traditional fat grafting techniques, along with decreased swelling and bruising in the donor sites. Patients showed continued results for as much as one to two years after autologous fat grafting with PRP. A variety of areas were treated on various patients including the nasolabial folds, lips, malar fat pads, and breasts. Patients will continue to be observed for progress. Nevertheless, results to date are promising and suggest that PRP may offer great potential for autologous fat transfer for use in cosmetic and reconstructive surgeries as well as other surgical areas.
Dr. Kevin Sadati, a board-certified Orange County facial plastic surgeon, is an expert in the field of fat grafting and has introduced a unique procedure for superior results. Dr. Sadati uses the patient’s own fatty tissue (autologous fat) with PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) to enhance their body and facial features. He has published a well-known research paper regarding free fat transfer with PRP in the Journal of American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery. His paper received the best scholarly manuscript research paper award in 2006 at the American Academy of Cosmetic Scientific meeting. Soon after receiving this award, he presented his technique at the American Osteopathic Otolaryngology and Facial plastic surgery meeting in 2007, 2010, and 2011 to resounding reviews from his colleagues.
Dr. Sadati says his patients have expressed a desire to avoid using matter, such as implants, that would be foreign to their bodies when having an augmentation procedure. Dr. Sadati’s innovative fat grafting technology allows him to create natural-looking results in less time and with better results, and is performed under local anesthesia. The Harvest Technology System is a more efficient and cost effective way to purify and concentrate platelets (PRP) in order to add to pure fat for fat grafting.
