by
Lisa Chamoff, Contributing Reporter | January 14, 2015
From the January 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
“We have data showing that we produce high-quality fat,” Harris says. “Based on the feedback we receive from surgeons, they save more time.”
With Puregraft, the fat is cleaned in a separate machine. Bradford Conlan, chief executive officer of Puregraft says that Puregraft’s filtration technology was “designed to purify tissue in a gentle and consistent manner.
“It’s the only product to have independent clinical studies that validate a higher tissue quality and in turn, improved retention rates,” Conlan says.
Glasberg says there’s hope that in the future, surgeons will be able to use stem cells to recreate the fatty tissue found in a particular part of the body, such as the breasts.
“If we could harvest down to stem cells, we might be able to put it where we want and mimic the tissues there,” Glasberg says.
Non-lipo
Ultrasound is also becoming a popular technology for use in minimally invasive cosmetic treatments. For patients who aren’t ready for an invasive surgery, such as liposuction, doctors have been promoting a new fat-reducing technology using pulsed focused ultrasound. In April 2014, Syneron and Candela received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market UltraShape for reducing fat in the abdomen.
Dr. Bruce Katz, director of Juva Skin and Laser Center in New York City, is one of the first doctors to use UltraShape, and he usually tells patients that it takes 2 to 4 inches of fat away over two or three treatments spaced two weeks apart. It replaces older technology that used heat to melt fat, which is much more painful. The non-thermal, focused ultrasound destroys fat cells while leaving the surrounding tissue undamaged.
The main drawback of UltraShape is that the results are not quite as dramatic as more invasive surgical procedures. In the randomized, controlled clinical study of UltraShape, there was an average reduction of 2.5 cm in the treatment phase and 0.5 cm reduction in the control phase.
“There’s no substitute for the original liposuction,” Glasberg says.
The ultrasound fountain of youth
Ultrasound also continues to be popular for patients who want to look youthful without undergoing expensive and invasive facelifts. Ultherapy, which received FDA clearance for eyebrow lifts in 2009, and two years later for facial lifting and tightening, recently received FDA approval to market the system for lifting of the chest, or décolletage. The ultrasound stimulates collagen at a depth of 1.5 mm for fine lines and wrinkles down to the connective tissue at 4.5 mm.
