Autologous fat grafting in the face and neck: Multinational trends and knowledge of the safety, applications, and indications considering oncologic risk potential

Background: Autologous fat grafting (AFG) is evolving in both aesthetic and reconstructive applications, since the body of evidence for its use has expanded. The earliest controversies were evident in lipofilling for oncological breast reconstruction, and to this day, some countries do not allow it for fear of inducing tumourigenesis in an oncologically ablated field.

Methods: We sought to review contemporary harvesting and processing techniques for AFG in the craniofacial region, therefore distributed a survey to evaluate the clinical impact of oncological risk across four European countries.

Results: We found no significant geographical differences between the German-speaking and the English groups concerning their harvesting and processing technique. Half of our respondents discuss the possibility of pro-oncologic behavior of AFG.

Conclusion: AFG harvesting and processing techniques do not considerably vary by geography. Further studies should evaluate oncologic risk potential of AFG in head and neck tumor sites, especially because there is no excellent article regarding this phenomenon.Level of Evidence: V.