Robert Whitfield MD explains how fat grafting can repair radiation-damaged skin. Radiation causes thickening, firmness, and loss of pliability, but injecting fat from healthy areas restores texture and softness through stem cells and regenerative factors in the fat itself.
But one of the problems we had to treat was the impact on skin that's been radiated, where it gets thickened and firm, and it develops vascular surface markings and hyperpigmentation, and it becomes woody and it loses its pliability and its softness. And the early experience we all had in fat grafting was taking body fat from a non radiated area and injected it into a radiated area of skin. And then watching improvements in the skin color and texture and softness. And I believe now everybody understands that there are factors in non radiated fat that improve the environment. Adipose derived stem cells and other regenerative factors that are within the soft tissue of our body. The body is smarter than the doctors are. And if we learn how to harness these intrinsic components, we can do a lot more healing with that sometimes than we can with a knife or a suture.
