Wound healing is a fundamental but complex process to maintain skin barrier. Any factor affected in the wound healing pathway can lead to chronic, non-healing wounds, which can bring harm to physical and psychological health of patients. A variety of modalities have been brought up to improve wound healing, including fat grafting. Looking back of the literatures, autologous fat grafting not only benefit in aesthetic surgery but also in chronic wound healing problems. The fat grafting procedure is rapid, safe and low-cost, compare with other treatment modalities.
This preliminary case report utilized autologous fat grafting to treat five patients with chronic non-healing cutaneous ulcers. All the patients suffered from chronic wound for more than 6 months (varies from 6 months to 11 years) despite receiving long-term wound care with various types of dressing materials, debridement or reconstructive surgery before. Complete wound closure was achieved after only one surgical procedure of autologous fat grafting. The results were long-lasting and remained stable during 6 months postoperative follow up. Patient satisfaction was also achieved. Hence, we believed that autologous fat grafting was an effective procedure for chronic wound treatment. Further investigation of mechanisms and cases study are mandatory.