Background: Tissue filler injection is popular for tissue augmentation, but it is still not widely used for depressed scar correction because of the limitations of the existed materials.
Objective: This study was designed to observe the effects of a tissue-engineering filler derived from autologous skin and hairs for correction of moderate-severe depressed scars.
Patients and methods: Totally 40 volunteers with moderate-severe depressed scars were enrolled in. Keratin gel and fibroblast derived from autologous hairs and a small piece of skin were mixed with autoserum and then injected into the dermis of the deformities. The whole procedure for injection was: filling and leveling up the scars by 10% after adequate subcision and repeating the treatment every other 3 weeks for total 9 weeks. Clinical features at different time points of the scars were collected and assessed.
Results: Thirty-six patients followed the protocol completely, receiving at least 50% improvement in depth and size of scars (significant improvement) 1 year after the treatment, with 88.9% of them had '75% improvement or more improvement' (excellent improvement). No severe complications were reported.
Conclusion: Autologous keratin and fibroblast as filler is an effective option for moderate-severe depressed scars correction with long-term efficacy and high satisfactory.
Keywords: Fibroblast; depressed scar; keratin gel; soft tissue filler; subcision.