“Latest Stem Cells News”

Two stem cell-based plastic surgery operations were successfully performed in Rome. The operations, a face-lift and a mastoplastic additive were performed at the Nuova Villa Claudia Clinic in Rome by Roberto Scalco, who is specialized in reconstructive plastic surgery and the president of the “Advanced esthetic surgery” medical association.

“This is the first face-lift performed in Europe with this method, the only previous operation like this was done in Tel Aviv,” was written in a statement.

Scalco, assisted by his team, used fat stem cells removed from the same patient treated with the ‘Celution’ system, a machine that is able to specifically select a colony of fat stem cells and concentrate them. Once an adequate amount of cells were treated, a very high concentration of stem cells was reinserted to increase breast size without making any incisions. The same procedure was performed also for a face-lift, with the insertion of treated stem cells into the neck, face, and on scars. The result was a minimally invasive operation.

The operation required few, very small cuts for the face-lift, and no cuts or incisions for the breast augmentation. The two patients were sedated for the operation and are currently well with no pain or excessive swelling.

In the operating room, concluded the statement, Claudio Calabrese, a surgeon of the Breast Unit at the Careggi Hospital in Florence and head of the multi-centre trial (Florence, Madrid, and Glasgow) who has treated at least 70 patients with adult autologous stem cell injections to reconstruct breast tissue after mastectomies, assisted the operation.

“This is an innovative operation,” explained Scalco, “not due to the lifting technique, but rather since it was the first time that adult stem cells from fat tissue were used in the same patient in a facial operation. The results, both for the increase in breast volume and for the face-lift, have proven to be practically permanent, since using the Celution System doubles the amount of stem cells that are normally contained in the fat, which are then reabsorbed.”

This first face-lift with stem cells represents the future of esthetic surgery and opens new and interesting scenarios for the use of new technology with maximum respect for the patient’s body, where cuts and scars will be increasingly less invasive.

“We are entering into a new era of natural plastic surgery and natural esthetic treatments,” he added, pointing out “Italy is at the cutting edge in terms of esthetic surgery. The technology used is extremely promising, its potential is not clear, and there will be many more positive surprises.”

“It is necessary to add,” continued Calabrese, “that in the mastectomies and esthetic procedures performed until now using the old methods, one of the problems was loss of feeling. With the augmentation technique used here using the patient’s fat, which contains a high concentration of stem cells, in over 80% of the cases, a substantial sense of feeling was recovered.”