Autologous fat grafting is a widely used procedure in plastic and reconstructive surgery, with nearly 80,000 procedures performed in the United States in 2016. The major problem with fat grafting is that only about 60 percent of the graft volume lasts for an extended time, so multiple treatments are usually necessary. Although the fat harvest is minimally invasive, there is time, cost, and recovery inherent to the procedure. Presently, there is no ready method for preserving harvested fat between injections. Our fat graft preservation vessel enables simple, cost-effective, on-site cryo-storage for repeat fat grafting procedures without the need for subsequent invasive tissue harvests.
Description
The multi-functional vessel is a 10cc chamber with Luer Lock ports on both ends and a built-in filtration system. After harvesting fat graft material, the vessel interfaces with the harvesting syringe for easy transfer. Then cryo-protectant solution is added to the vessel and it storedin a hospital freezer. When necessary, thawing and washing occurs in the same closed system of the storage vessel. Currently, onlyone tissue banking company that offers off-site cryo-storage of adipose tissue grafts,andshipping the material back and forth is expensive and complicates procedure scheduling. Because our system involves storing the tissue on-site, it enables multiple treatments with minimal additional costs after the original fat harvest and processing.
Applications
· Soft tissue deformities after craniofacial trauma
· Congenital craniofacial deformities
· Deformities related to cancer treatment
Advantages
· Negates the need for repeat procedures
· Follow-up treatments require only a minor procedure
· All mixing, storage, and washing of fat grafts occurs in the same self-contained device
· Easy to use and compatible with standard fat grafting equipment
· Storage of harvested tissue is on-site, reducing shipping times and costs
· Minimizes patient risk and discomfort
Invention Readiness
Prototype
IP Status
https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2019046713A1
