Scar tissue graft as a filler for soft tissue augmentation.

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Soft tissue augmentation with autogenous tissue has been used to correct various defects during aesthetic facial contouring and reconstructive procedures. Although dermal grafts have longer survival rates, fat grafts always have been more popular because of the simple harvesting and grafting methods used. The authors aimed to use existing scar tissue as an injectable graft and to compare its effectiveness as a soft tissue filler substance with that of dermal grafts. In this study, scar tissue was created on 24 male Wistar rats. The created scar and normal healthy skin were removed from the rat dorsal scapular donor site. After depithelialization, the harvested tissues were minced until they were thin enough to pass through a 16-gauge needle. The grafts then were injected into the recipient site between the abdominal muscles. Volumetric analyses and histologic evaluation of the grafts were performed 1, 3, and 5 months after transplantation. The first month after the injection, the amount of remaining dermis graft was more than the scar graft, and this difference was statistically significant. However, at the end of months 3 and 5, there was no marked difference between the groups. The remaining volume of injected scar tissue graft was comparable with that of the dermis graft. The scar grafts were composed mainly of dense connective tissue during all the evaluation periods. In th

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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