Our North America team sat for a round-table interview with Seven leading doctors who were happy to share their experience and thoughts about Alma’s BeautiFill by LipoLife. This FDA cleared platform allows practitioners to harvest over 95% vital fat and use it immediately for fat transfer based on their patients’ requirements. The interview was conducted during ASLMS convention in Denver, Colorado last April. We thank all of the participants who contributed:
Jeffrey Hsu, MD, FAAD
Yael Halaas, MD, FACS
Kelly Stankiewicz, MD, FAAD
Daniel Friedmann, MD, FAAD
Richard Goldfarb, MD
Jason Pozner, MD, FACS
Chris Robb, MD, FAAD
What does Autologous fat transfer mean? why is it necessary?
Dr. Hsu: “Autologous fat transfer is simply to take fat from where you don’t want it, typically around the abdomen or the flanks, and place it where you do want it.”
Dr. Halaas: “That free transfer of fat cells uses your blood supply to grow in the area where you want that volume.”
Dr. Stankiewicz: “As part of our aging process, we loose fat volume in our face.The fat pads shift downward creating a sagging effect. The fat we transfer over there is anti-aging in the most natural way.”
How was fat transfer performed prior to BeautiFill? how comfortable did you feel using those techniques?
Dr. Friedmann: “The evolution of fat transfer has happened over the last 25 years. Initially, plastic surgeons used very large and rough instruments attempting to harvest as much fat as possible. They did so without really concentrating on the actual quality of the fat.”
Dr. Halaas: “It used to be quite difficult harvesting the fat, and also quite time consuming. It required a trip to the operating room or procedure room. There was set up involved.
Dr. Hsu: “Basically we had to have a whole stack of different devices coupled together in order to perform this procedure.”
Dr. Goldfarb: “I was frustrated doing a whole lot of fat transfer that never really had a great success rate.”
Dr. Pozner: “We harvested it, we centrifuged it and tried everything to make it more viable.”
Dr. Hsu: “We weren’t so aware back then but it probably didn’t lead to the best quality and vitality of fat.”
Dr. Robb: “Different plastic surgeons and dermatologists did it in different ways, and then held on to dear life hoping they have about 75% survival of fat cells.”
Dr. Friedmann: “The quantity is still important, but if you transfer a large quantity of poor fat won’t achieve great results. Transferring high quality fat is the most important thing.”
The all-in-one fat transfer solution by Alma
What did BeautiFill change for you as a practitioner? what benefits does it offer to the patients?
Dr. Pozner: ” the beauty of BeautiFill, to me, is that it’s a self enclosed, very simple system to use. Alma took out the guess work out of what we needed as practitioners.”
Dr. Hsu: “I don’t need to do it in a fancy OR sitting which I don’t have. I don’t need to put the patient there. The patient is completely awake, not even sedated which adds so much to the safety of this procedure.”
Dr. Robb: “The wavelength is dramatically unique, the way its interacting with tissue is pretty spectacular, separating the fat very simply, without creating too much heat and killing the fat”.
Dr. Friedmann: “the other cool thing is that the Cannula protects the laser fiber – this is not a bare fiber. So when introducing the laser into the fatty layer you minimize the contact time between the fiber and the fat.”
Dr. Hsu: “Viability is the number one thing in Autologous fat transfer, or fat grafting. if the fat cells are not intact or dead, they are no good. Of course you can inject them under your patient’s skin let’s say in the face – and the patient may be happy for a month, maybe Two. However, they’re body will soon absorb those dead fat cells and the treatment effect will vanish.”
Dr. Stankiewicz: “There are many patients who require full face re-volumization or more volume than we can offer them through pre-packaged dermal fillers.”
Dr. Hsu: “I know of patients who go through 5-6 syringes of dermal fillers in One year and they become fatigued. Eventually they give up. BeautiFill saves them most of these trips to the clinic.I’m so happy I can do something for my patients that I was not able to do before.”
Would you recommend BeautiFill to your colleagues?
Dr. Friedmann: “BeautiFill is a hands-down, winning device. easy to work with, simple to learn, and gives you high quality optimal fat. Its an all-in-one device, and if you don’t have any experience performing fat transfer, it is all there for you – everything you need comes with this system.”
Dr. Halaas: “The ease of collecting the fat from the canister and having it immediately ready for injection is remarkable. No manipulation or processing required.”
Dr. Hsu: “Anybody who has good surgical background – this is not a hard jump for you to make. Especially with the support and training provided by Alma.”
