Acelity Provides Support for The Plastic Surgery Foundation’s GRAFT Registry
GRAFT Registry will Evaluate Fat Grafting for Aesthetic and Reconstructive Procedures in order to Provide Data for the Evaluation and Analysis of Patient Outcomes and Satisfaction Rates

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. and SAN ANTONIO - The Plastic Surgery Foundation (The PSF) today announced an agreement with Acelity, a global wound care and regenerative medicine company, for support of The PSF's General Registry of Autologous Fat Transfer (GRAFT). Acelity will be the exclusive sponsor for the first U.S.-based, nationwide registry of fat grafting procedures, which will evaluate fat grafting for aesthetic and reconstructive surgery in order to provide data for the evaluation and analysis of patient outcomes and satisfaction rates.

"The future of our specialty, both reconstructive and aesthetic, is using a patient's own fat," said ASPS President Scot Glasberg, MD. "Because this technique has only increased in demand in recent years, it is imperative to maintaining patient safety that tracking of such procedures begins now. We are proud to be partnering with an organization who has a shared vision and commitment to quality of care."

Fat grafting is a procedure that involves transferring adipose tissue from one part of a patient's body to another for desired volume restoration, or contouring of abnormalities. The procedure is increasing in popularity because it uses the patient's own fat cells.

"We are very proud of the ingenuity and innovation our GRAFT Registry represents for patient safety, which will be of enormous benefit to clinicians as the demand for fat grafting procedures continues to gain momentum," said The PSF President Nicholas Vedder, MD. "With support from Acelity, we're able to scale our processes for an even greater impact on the future of this revolutionary technique."

"There has been a noticeable increase in fat grafting procedures in the U.S. within the past several years, underscoring the importance of collecting clinical data as this complex procedure becomes more prevalent," said Ron Silverman, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Acelity. "Acelity supports The Plastic Surgery Foundation in this vital effort to track outcomes as we understand the significance of these data for clinicians and ultimately patients."

The GRAFT Registry is projected to be the first central web-accessible national database in which participating clinical centers contribute aesthetic or reconstructive surgery case study information. Data such as patient demographics, procedural variables, complications, and incidence of new or recurrent breast cancers at established time points will be tracked. In addition, the GRAFT Registry uses scales from the BREAST-Q®, another one of The PSF-sponsored projects, to determine the impact of these procedures on patient-reported outcomes and quality of life. Data from the GRAFT Registry will be used to provide real-world clinical insights about fat grafting and to help establish best practice guidelines that will have broad impact on the plastic surgery community.

The GRAFT Registry is currently collecting data from select core sites. Data collection is expected to be open to all ASPS members in October 2015.