BACKGROUND: Progressive hemifacial atrophy (Parry-Romberg disease) is rare and involves all skin layers and subcutaneous soft and hard tissue. Autologous fat grafting has revolutionized the field of soft-tissue reconstruction and augmentation, but long-term maintenance is unpredictable. Stromal vascular fraction (SVF)-supplemented cell therapy offers new hope for improving fat graft survival, with good long-term results, but efficacy and long-term outcome in the clinic are rarely studied using objective data. OBJECTIVE: To compare the long-term viability of SVF-supplemented fat grafts and fat grafts alone for contour reconstruction of progressive hemifacial atrophy using quantitative volume analysis. METHODS: We treated 20 patients with stable hemifacial atrophy for at least 2 years with SVF-supplemented autologous fat grafting (n = 10) or fat grafting alone (n = 10). All patients were followed up every 3 months. Hemifacial volume was measured using computed tomography and the Philips Extended Brilliance Workspace. RESULTS: All patients had successful outcomes without complications, but fat survival and clinical improvement was greater with SVF-supplemented grafting than fat grafting alone after 6 months. CONCLUSION: SVF-supplemented autologous fat transplantation is effective and safe for treating progressive hemifacial atrophy and can enhance the survival of grafts in the face without major complications.
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Chang et al. (2013) studied this question.