A study on patients treated with polyacrylamide hydrogel injection for facial corrections.

Polyacrylamide hydrogel (PAAG) has been used as a tissue filler in facial corrective surgery and for breast augmentation in Kiev, Ukraine, for more than 10 years with reportedly very good results. These results, however, have not been published in peer-reviewed journals. A Danish/Swedish group of plastic surgeons with special interest in facial corrective surgery did a retrospective, systematic, pre-planned investigation of 104 patients treated at the center in Kiev. All data were entered into a pre-programmed database for data processing. The mean age of this population was 37.4 years and the mean time since the gel injection was 3.9 years. An average of 5.7 ml of PAAG was injected prior to the investigation. The gel was well tolerated and assessment of the outcome was judged to be very good by 78% and good by 22%, by both physicians and patients. It is concluded that PAAG is well tolerated and seems to be a promising product for facial corrective surgery. Currently, the product (Aquamid) is being studied in several prospective clinical trials, one of which is completed and in the process of preparation for publication.