Understanding the Lipogems® Device: How Your Fat Tissue Gets Prepared for Treatment
Carlo Tremolada · United States Patent · 2015
A Patented System Transforms Fat into Injectable Healing Material
This U.S. patent describes the Lipogems® device—a specialized tool that prepares fat tissue from your own body for use in regenerative treatments. The device takes fat collected through liposuction and processes it into tiny clusters of cells. These clusters contain adipocytes (fat cells), stem cells, and supportive tissue that can help your body heal.
The system was designed by Dr. Carlo Tremolada and is now used worldwide. It represents a significant advancement over older methods of preparing fat for transplantation.
Fat Clusters Become Small Enough for Gentle Injection
One key innovation is how the device reduces fat into consistently small pieces. When fat is first removed through liposuction, it contains large clumps of varying sizes. These clumps are too big to inject smoothly into damaged tissues.
The Lipogems® device solves this by:
Breaking down large fat clusters into smaller, uniform pieces
Creating cell groups small enough to pass through very thin needles
Preserving the natural structure that keeps cells healthy and functional
This size reduction matters for your comfort and results. Smaller clusters mean doctors can use thinner injection needles. Thinner needles cause less trauma to your tissues and allow procedures to happen under local anesthesia.
Washing Process Removes Unwanted Materials
The device also separates helpful cells from waste materials. Raw liposuctioned fat contains things you do not want injected back into your body. These include anesthetic fluid, blood, and oil from damaged cells.
The patented system washes and filters the fat tissue. By the end of processing, you have a clean mixture of:
Small clusters of fat cells
Stem cells and regenerative cells
Supportive connective tissue
This purified material is ready for injection into joints, skin, or other treatment areas.
Closed System Reduces Contamination and Infection Risk
A major safety feature is that the device keeps your tissue isolated from the outside air. From the moment fat is collected until it is ready for injection, the biological material stays inside sterile containers.
This closed design offers several benefits. It reduces the chance of contamination by bacteria or other harmful agents. It protects medical staff and the clinical environment. It also means the procedure can safely happen in outpatient settings—not just hospital operating rooms.
The device uses disposable components that are discarded after each use. This eliminates risks from improperly cleaned equipment.
Processed Fat Works Better in Your Body
The patent explains why smaller fat clusters integrate more successfully into treated tissues. When clusters are tiny and uniform, they have more surface area to contact surrounding tissue. This increased contact promotes biological stimulation and helps the injected material become part of your body.
Older techniques that left fat in larger clumps often led to problems. Patients sometimes experienced hardening, calcifications, or complete reabsorption of injected fat. The Lipogems® processing method helps avoid these complications.
Simple Procedure Creates Powerful Healing Potential
The entire preparation happens quickly using just a few sterile instruments. Fat passes through the device when gentle pressure is applied—typically using syringes connected to the containers.
The result is a biological filler containing your own regenerative cells. This material can be injected into joints affected by arthritis, areas of damaged skin, or other tissues needing repair. Because the cells come from your own body, there is no risk of rejection.
---
Source: Tremolada et al., United States Patent, 2015.
Original Publication
Device and a Method for Preparing a Tissue
Carlo Tremolada · United States Patent · 2015
A device and a method for preparing adipose tissue for transplantation from lobular fat material extracted by liposuction are described. The fat material consists of a mixture of fluid materials and cell fragments, cells and one or more cell macroagglomerates of heterogeneous sizes. The device comprises at least one sterile container with a size reducing mechanism that divides the inner chamber into at least two portions, particularly a first upper portion and a second lower portion. The size reducing means transforms the heterogeneous fat lobules into cell agglomerates of smaller and identical or similar sizes. In subsequent steps, the device enables washing and separation of the processed cell mass from unwanted fluid materials such as saline, anesthetic solution, blood and oil. This processing yields a biological filler consisting of a cell suspension or mass containing adipocytes, stem cells, and connective material fragments of small, homogeneous sizes suitable for injection. The resulting small cell agglomerates allow use of particularly thin transplantation cannulae, reducing procedural trauma and facilitating tissue engraftment. The device minimizes atmospheric exposure and contamination risks through use of disposable instruments, and the prepared adipose tissue can be injected into any tissue or organ for volume correction, improvement of skin trophism, or treatment of pathological conditions.