Effects of age on fat grafting

Abstract

Objectives (oral/poster only) Complications after fat grafting (FG) persist to this day. One of the most important factors for successful FG is to maximise adiposity mass (AM) obtained and to minimise oil mass (OM) during liposuction. In the last decade, only a few studies have examined the effect of age on AM and OM and found no association. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of age on fat parameters obtained during liposuction. Materials and methods (oral/poster only) The prospective study included 50 women who underwent abdominoplasty with abdominal skin flap removal and vibro-assisted liposuction in Kaunas private clinic in 2022. Inclusion criteria were age between 30 and 60, no co-morbidities or harmful habits. Parameters such as age and body mass index (BMI) were included. A total of 100 fat tubes were collected. Enzymatic isolation and centrifugation methods were used and samples were separated into the upper OM, the middle of AM and a lower fraction of water. After obtaining the weight of each fraction, the water was removed from the calculations. Using GraphPad Prism 9 software Spearman correlation coefficient was used and for descriptive statistics, median values (min-max) were calculated. Results (oral/poster only) The median age was 41.5 (31-60) years. The median AM was 81.08 (45.13%-97.5%) and the median of OM was 18.9% (2.5%-54.87%). Median BMI was 30.57 (23.4-33.6 ). There was a negative moderate statistically significant correlation between age and AM (-0.4132 p=0.0029). There was a passive moderate statistically significant correlation between age and OM (0.4132 p=0.0029). A positive very weak statistically not significant correlation was found between BMI and age (0.2401 p>0.05). Conclusions Younger age may be associated with higher AM. Older age may be related to higher OM. Higher AM and OM mass increase the likelihood of good FG, so we assume that FG is most effective at a younger age.