Autologous Fresh Fat Grafting Followed by Autologous Cryopreserved Fat Grafting

Minimally Invasive Post-Traumatic Craniofacial Soft Tissue Regeneration: Validation of Safety and Efficacy of Staged Approach Using Autologous Fresh Fat Grafting Followed by Autologous Cryopreserved Fat Grafting

The goal of this clinical trial is to validate the safety and effectiveness of a two-stage approach for minimally invasive craniofacial soft tissue reconstruction using autologous fat grafting in wounded service members and veterans. The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. Will treating subjects with post-traumatic craniofacial deformities using fresh fat grafts, followed by a second treatment 3 months later with cryopreserved fat stored at -80°C, improve facial tissue regeneration and appearance?
2. How do volume retention and tissue health change between fresh and cryopreserved grafts in humans?
3. How do factors such as cellular composition of the graft, patient demographics, and medical conditions (including diabetes, tobacco use, medications, age, and BMI) affect fat graft volume retention and overall outcomes?

Researchers will compare results from the second-stage cryopreserved fat grafting to fresh fat grafting to assess outcomes like volume retention, patient recovery, and cost reduction.

Participants will:

Undergo an initial fat grafting procedure. Have additional fat harvested and cryo-stored for use in a second-stage procedure.

Receive the cryopreserved fat in a later stage without the need for a second fat harvest.

Receive small test injections behind each ear for later analysis. Provide data on demographics and medical conditions for correlation with outcomes.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Facial Defect
• Intervention / Treatment: Procedure: Serial Fat Grafting Fresh followed by Cryopreserved Fat

Detailed Description

Craniofacial injuries are common among wounded service members, with 22.7% to 39% of battle injuries affecting the cranio-maxillofacial region. Restoring appearance requires precise soft tissue reconstruction. This proposal aims to address that need using a minimally invasive approach that uses the patient's own tissue, building on previous successful DoD-funded clinical trials.

Autologous fat grafting (AFG) is a common, minimally invasive procedure used in plastic surgery to restore facial volume. In a prior department of defense funded trial, the study investigators demonstrated its safety and effectiveness for repairing traumatic craniofacial deformities. However, about 37% of the grafted fat is reabsorbed during early healing, requiring multiple procedures for optimal results. The donor site harvest is the main source of discomfort, time, and cost in these procedures.

The study investigators propose improving this process by harvesting extra fat during the first procedure, cryo-storing it, and using the preserved fat for a second stage without needing another harvest. This approach will be validated using outcome measures from prior work. Additionally, the investigators are working with a commercial partner to advance a low-cost kit for cryo-storing fat at medical facilities, including military treatment centers.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 22
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Eleanor Shirley, MA, CCRC; Phone Number: 412-624-2376; Email: shirleye@upmc.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, 15261
      • Recruiting
      • University of Pittsburgh
      • Principal Investigator: J. Peter Rubin
      • Contact: Eleanor Shirley, MA, CCRC; Phone Number: 412-624-2376; Email: shirleye@upmc.edu

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Aged 18 years or older and able to provide informed consent,
• Have suffered injury resulting in craniofacial volume defects which could be treated with a graft volume of between 3 and 150 cc of lipoaspirate (the patient's own fat, collected through liposuction). This may include patients who have not had craniofacial surgical procedures, as well as those who have undergone surgical procedures and have remaining deformities (post-surgical deformities).
• Be at least 3 months post-injury or most recent surgery, so that acute edema (swelling) is resolved.
• Volume defects (facial injury) are covered by intact skin and do not communicate with oral cavity or sinuses.
• The three-dimensional geometry of the volume defects (facial injury) would allow for treatment with fat grafting.
• Has sufficient donor tissue, as assessed on physical exam, to graft deformity and cryostore an equal amount of adipose (fat) tissue.
• Willing and able to comply with follow up examinations, including radiographic studies (i.e. CT scans)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Age less than 18 years.
• Inability to provide informed consent.
• Craniofacial defects intended for treatment have open wounds or communicate with oral cavity or sinus (note: A second facial injury, that will not be treated by the study, that includes this type of defect, will not necessarily exclude the patient from participating).
• Active infection anywhere in the body.
• Systemic disease or medical condition that would render the fat harvest and injection procedure, along with associated anesthesia, unsafe to the patient.
• History of radiation to the areas intended for treatment or the graft harvest site
• Medications that would significantly impact wound healing, such as immunosuppressive agents, chronic steroid treatment, or chemotherapy, or medications/allergies that would pose a risk to anesthesia or the planned procedures.
• Active narcotic abuse (presents a variable for pain logs).
• Known coagulopathy (increased risk of bleeding/delay in forming blood clots).

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Clinical Intervention; The therapeutic intervention is a two stage surgical procedure (with a third stage biopsy for research purposes in this trial) in which a primary traumatic or post-surgical craniofacial deformity is treated first with autologous fat grafting using freshly harvested adipose tissue. A second fat grafting procedure is performed at 3.0 months after the first procedure using autologous adipose tissue that had been cryopreserved during the first procedure.

Procedure: Serial Fat Grafting Fresh followed by Cryopreserved Fat; The therapeutic intervention is a two stage surgical procedure (with a third stage biopsy for research purposes in this trial) in which a primary traumatic or post-surgical craniofacial deformity is treated first with autologous fat grafting using freshly harvested adipose tissue. A second fat grafting procedure is performed at 3.0 months after the first procedure using autologous adipose tissue that had been cryopreserved during the first procedure.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Facial volume and appearance scale	This is a validated visual 3-point grading scale that will be scored by 4 blinded observers (2 physicians and 2 lay-observers) from standardized photographs The definitions for each of three points on the scale are listed here: a score of 1 means: for baseline grading of a given facial aesthetic region assessed there is an obvious contour defect that would benefit from volume fill. For post-treatment grading, no discernable improvement from baseline. A score of 2 means: for a given facial aesthetic region with a history of a traumatic deformity and treatment of the deformity according to the study protocol, there is a discernable improvement in the contour defect from baseline which does not yet approximate the contralateral side (if uninjured) or represent a normal appearance. A score of 3 means: for a given facial aesthetic region there is a normal appearance and/or close to matching contralateral structure (if uninjured).	The key timepoint is 3 months post-graft. The difference between the Facial Volume and Appearance Scale scores from the Pre-treatment baseline to the 3-months post-1st treatment, for each subject, will be generated.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Incidence of Treatment-Emergent Adverse Events [Safety and Tolerability]	Incidence of adverse events will be counted, as well as a subscore for those adverse events that are considered related to the study intervention.	From intervention to the final study visit (3 months post 2nd treatment, or approximately 6 months after initial intervention)
Change in facial injury volume from Pre to Post CT Scans- within each subject- High resolution Computed Tomography with 3D reconstruction (CT) will be performed.	Craniofacial fine cut CT with 3D reconstruction & volume analysis. 5 CTs of the face will be done on each subject. The first scan will be pre-procedural and will serve as a baseline. All CT scans will be done on a 64-slice scanner (LightSpeed, GE Healthcare), using collimation of 0.625mm and slice interval of 0.3mm, resulting in approximately 50% overlap between adjacent slices. kVp, mA, and FOV will be optimized to the subject, but will approximately be kVp=120; mA=320, FOV=18cm. Soft tissue and bone kernels will be employed. These images will be volumetrically reformatted into coronal and sagittal planes for confirmation of findings. Additionally, surface-rendered volumetric reformats will be created emphasizing both bony structures and soft tissues. Images will be reviewed by a dedicated head and neck radiologist with 25 years of experience in CT of the face.	Facial volume analysis of the injured area will be calculated from the individual CTs, comparing from each subject's pretreatment baseline to the final study visit (3 months post 2nd treatment, or approximately 6 months after initial intervention)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Pittsburgh
• Collaborators: Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: J. Peter Rubin, University of Pittsburgh; Study Director: Patsy Simon, BS, RN, CCRC, CCRA, ACRP-PM, Director, Operations and Administration

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 1, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2027

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 21, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 17, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): December 24, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): October 22, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 20, 2025
• Last Verified: September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: STUDY24080145

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No