Injection of Autologous Fat Alone and in Combination With Autologous Platelet Gel for Nasolabial Fold Augmentation

Background: Recently, soft tissue augmentation has become popular due to development of convenient techniques. Autologous fat is one of the safest fillers for this purpose. Moreover, healing effects of autologous platelet gel on acute and chronic human skin wounds have been shown in recent studies. Objectives: In this study, the effect of subcutaneous injection of autologous fat alone and in combination with platelet gel was compared in the treatment of nasolabial skin folds in nine cases. Patients and Methods: Nine volunteers (three males and six females) were referred to the dermatology clinic of Rasoul-e-Akram hospital. For each patient, one side of the lateral nasolabial folds underwent injections with the combination of autologous fat and platelet gel and the other side with autologous fat alone. Improvement of nasolabial fold was monitored by clinical assessment and digital photographs over a six-month period. Results: All patients experienced improvement in the wrinkles of the side treated by the combination therapy compared to the other side. In addition, less complication was observed in the side that underwent combination therapy. Conclusions: Our study showed that autologous fat in combination with platelet gel might have better cosmetic results as well as lesser complications in the healing of nasolabial wrinkles. However, the findings of this pilot study should be examined in further studies with larger sample size.