Many surgical methods have been tried to correct deep nasolabial fold but it is still regarded as a stigma of aging process which is hard to correct. In recent years, less invasive, simpler and less expensive surgical methods are preferred by patients, so autologous fat graft is regaining attention of many plastic surgeons. Thanks to many surgeon’s effort to reduce the reabsorption and to increase the take rate of grafted fat tissue, autologous fat injection has been used successfully in soft tissue facial contouring and there were also trials to apply this method for the correction of deep nasolabial fold. Using author’s counter-compression fat injection technique, the author performed autologous fat injection on 20 patients with deep or prominent nasolabial fold from October 2002 to October 2003. The author thoroughly obeyed the standard protocol to reduce the reabsorption and to increase the take rate of grafted fat tissue. The remaining fat after injection were kept under -20℃ for 9 months and were used for the repeated injection in 2 to 3 months after first injection to improve outcome in overly-reabsorbed or inadequate 13 cases. All patients were satisfied with the outcome, though 3 of them had minor complications (erythmatous stip of skin: 2 cases, firm nodule of skin: 1 case) which wlould be resolved through conservative management.
In conclusion autologous fat injection technique is simple and effective for correcting deep nasolabial fold, if we are competent to perform proper injection into precise anatomic position, stick to the measures to reduce the reabsorption and to increase the tak rate of grafted fat tissue, and know how and when to do supplementary repeated injection.
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