Fat Tissue Treatment Shows Promise for Hard-to-Heal Wounds
Fabrizio Moffa, Alberico Balbiano da Colcavagno, Elia Ricci · Italian Journal of Wound Care · 2018
Chronic wounds often resist standard treatments
When a wound fails to heal normally, it becomes chronic. This can happen with pressure sores, vascular ulcers, or inflammatory skin conditions. These stubborn wounds affect quality of life and require specialized care. Italian researchers explored whether using a patient's own processed fat tissue could help jumpstart healing in these difficult cases.
Researchers treated 17 patients with long-standing wounds
A wound care center in Italy studied patients whose skin wounds had lasted an average of nearly ten years. Some wounds had been present for almost 50 years. The patients ranged in age from 38 to 84 years old. Their wounds included vascular ulcers (35%), inflammatory ulcers (29%), pressure sores (23%), and other types.
All wounds selected for treatment were deep but clean, with healthy tissue forming at the base. Patients needed to have enough body fat for the procedure to work.
The Lipogems® procedure uses your own fat tissue
The treatment involves collecting about 60 milliliters (roughly four tablespoons) of fat from the patient's abdomen or thigh. This happens during a single surgical session under general or spinal anesthesia.
The collected fat then goes through the Lipogems® system. This device gently breaks down the fat into tiny fragments without using chemicals or enzymes. The processed tissue keeps its natural healing properties, including pericytes (cells that support blood vessel health) and mesenchymal stem cells. Doctors then inject this material directly into the wound bed and edges.
Over 40% of wounds healed completely within four weeks
At the four-week checkup, results showed:
Seven wounds (41.2%) had healed completely
Six wounds (35.2%) showed clear improvement
Two wounds (11.8%) stayed the same
Two wounds (11.8%) got worse (one due to infection after surgery)
This means more than three out of four patients experienced positive results from a single treatment.
Pressure sores responded best to the treatment
The researchers found particularly strong results for pressure sores. Three out of four pressure sores healed completely within four weeks. The fourth healed by nine weeks. This suggests that deep wounds from prolonged pressure may respond especially well to this fat-based treatment approach.
Important limitations to consider
This study had a small number of patients and no comparison group receiving standard treatment alone. The researchers acknowledge these limits. The procedure also requires either general anesthesia or spinal anesthesia, which may not suit everyone. Additionally, patients must have adequate fat tissue available. Very thin or frail patients cannot use this treatment option.
The authors note that larger studies are needed to confirm these encouraging early findings. However, they view regenerative approaches using mesenchymal stem cells as an emerging frontier in chronic wound care.
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What this means for you: If you have chronic skin wounds that resist healing, this Italian study suggests that Lipogems® treatment may offer hope. Over three-quarters of patients in this small study saw their wounds heal or improve within four weeks. The procedure uses your own tissue, avoiding rejection concerns. However, you should discuss with your doctor whether you are a suitable candidate, particularly regarding anesthesia requirements and having enough fat tissue for the procedure.
Source: Moffa et al., Italian Journal of Wound Care, 2018.
Original Publication
Utilizzo di staminali da tessuto adiposo nelle lesioni cutanee croniche: esperienza clinica
Fabrizio Moffa, Alberico Balbiano da Colcavagno, Elia Ricci · Italian Journal of Wound Care · 2018
The healing of a chronic wound is an articulated and complex process requiring a global clinical vision of the patient. However, local treatment of the wound bed is of fundamental importance. Increasingly, inductive regenerative medicine is discussed as a means to stimulate senescent cells within chronic skin lesions, particularly through the use of mesenchymal stem cells. Autologous adipose tissue represents a source of stem cells, and Lipogems® technology makes its clinical application possible. This study analyzed results obtained with this method in 17 patients (9 female, 8 male) with chronic wounds treated between January and June 2017. The mean patient age was 65.01 years, with mean lesion duration of 116.3 months. Etiologies included vascular ulcers (35%), inflammatory ulcers (29%), and pressure injuries (23%). The technique involved lipoaspiration of approximately 60 cc of adipose tissue, mechanical processing in a closed system, and injection into the wound bed and borders. At 4-week follow-up, complete healing was observed in 7 patients (41.2%), improvement in 6 cases (35.2%), no change in 2 cases, and worsening in 2 cases. Best results were achieved in pressure injuries (3 of 4 healed at 4 weeks). Despite the limited number of patients, results were encouraging, suggesting adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells represent a valid solution for treating deep lesions through wound bed filling and tissue regeneration.