Safety and Efficacy of Facial Fat Grafting Under Local Anesthesia.

[BACKGROUND] Facial fat grafting under local anesthesia has been widely performed in outpatient departments and private settings in China. The present study aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of facial fat grafting under local anesthesia.

[METHOD] A retrospective study was conducted on 155 patients who underwent facial fat grafting. The clinical data were recorded. Preoperative and postoperative two-dimensional images were acquired to evaluate the effect of facial fat grafting on refining facial contouring, rejuvenation as well as deformity reconstruction. The complications were recorded to assess the safety of the approach.

[RESULT] All the facial fat grafting procedures were performed successfully under local anesthesia. A majority of the patients who underwent one or more sessions of facial fat grafting under local anesthesia were satisfied with the cosmetic results. No severe complications occurred in these patients.

[CONCLUSIONS] In the present study, remarkable and natural improvements of facial contouring, rejuvenation as well as deformity reconstruction were achieved with facial fat grafting in most patients. Thus, the procedures performed under local anesthesia by experienced surgeons are safe.

[LEVEL OF EVIDENCE IV] This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .