Investigaiton of the effect of preconditioning with ultrasound on fat graft survival

In recent years, use of fat grafts in plastic reconstructive and aesthetic surgery operations has been increasing. Although it has many advantages, there is not much evidence about its survival rates. Current studies are focused on increasing the survival rate of fat grafts. This study aims to evaluate ; the effect of TERUS application on fat graft survival. In our study, 42 male Wistar Albino rats were used. The fat graft donor site was determined as the right inguinal region and the recipient site was determined as the interscapular subcutaneous region. The recipient sites were standardized for TERUS application. At the end of 8 weeks, animals were sacrified and fat grafts were excised from the recipient site and immunohistochemical-histological examinations were performed wtih specimens. There was no statistically significant difference in macroscopic measurements. Histological and immunohistochemical findings revealed that TERUS increased vascularization of fat grafts but did not increase survival rates. These results interpreted as TERUS may affect fat cells shrinking. The mean fat graft survival rate of the preoperative-postoperative sham group was statistically significantly higher than other groups. This may indicate that only the massage effect of TERUS without ultrasonic energy might be useful on the survival of the fat grafts. Future studies with large sample sizes are needed about TERUS and its massage effect. As a result, althoughTERUS application can be used to increase vascularity of fat graft, it is not increased the fat graft survival rate.