Lipofilling (i.e., autologous fat transplantation or fat grafting) has become an important treatment modality in facial rejuvenation procedures: it is a safe procedure that requires only limited additional operating time. The presence of adipose-derived stem cells in the lipograft could result in tissue regeneration. This has resulted in a paradigm shift toward the combination of facial rejuvenation by using both surgical lifting techniques and lipofilling procedures to restore both volume and tissue damage at the cellular level. By this combination of both surgical lifting and lipofilling, effects of gravity, loss of skin elasticity because of elastin degradation, loss of volume because of fat atrophy, and bone resorption are all well addressed.
With extensive experience with the use of platelet-rich plasma as an additive to facial lipofilling procedures in our clinic dating back to 2005, retrospective analysis revealed several significant beneficial effects when adding platelet-rich plasma to the lipograft It’s known that the addition of platelet-rich plasma to lipografts would augment tissue regeneration.
The platelet-rich plasma significantly reduces postoperative recovery time and improve patient outcome when looking at skin elasticity, improvement of the nasolabial fold, or patient satisfaction. The use of platelet-rich plasma as an additive in lipofilling has shown great promise in vitro. These beneficial effects, however, have only partially been reproduced in a clinical setting. A growing number of studies report a concentration-dependent effect of platelet-rich plasma in vitro, making optimal use in a clinical setting delicate and complex. Further studies of platelet-rich plasma interactions on both the lipograft and the receptor host site–involved cells seem to be of paramount importance to determine the optimal use and concentrations of platelet-rich plasma in a clinical setting.