Half-side comparison between adipose tissue stem cell-enriched fat versus standard fat injection for hand rejuvenation

Background Autologous fat transfer is an option for soft tissue augmentation of hands; however, it showed unpredictability and low rates of graft survival. Supplementation of the fat graft with adipose tissue-derived stem cells is a novel approach, known as stem cellassisted lipotransfer, to overcome these problems. Objective The aim of this study was to compare conventional lipofilling and adipose tissuederived stem cell-enriched fat grafting for dorsal hand rejuvenation. Patients and methods In 20 right-handed menopausal women, conventional lipofilling was performed for the right hand and adipose tissue-derived stem cell-enriched fat grafting was performed for the left hand. The results were compared before and after 1 and 3 months with regard to prominence of veins, metacarpal spaces, esthetic preference, and Mertz scale. Results In all patients, both hands showed statistically significant esthetic improvement after 1 and 3 months when evaluated by both physicians and patients as regards all parameters and Mertz scale. However, the left hand appeared to have superior results when compared with the right hand after 3 months as per physicians’ scores but not as per the patients’ overall satisfaction score. Conclusion Adipose tissue-derived stem cell-enriched fat grafting is superior in longevity to traditional autologous fat transfer for hand rejuvenation.