Rocío Sánchez

Use of a three-way stopcock in grafting of autologous fat: technical note

Fig. 1. Conventional hospital 3-way stopcock. The 3 systems are connected. utologous fatty tissue is used routinely to treat conditions s varied as syndromic defects, post-traumatic and postperative complications, velopharyngeal insufficiency, and esthetic disorders. Fat has been transferred by injection since he beginning of the last century, although the technique has ecome more popular in the last 25 years.1 Many different aspects have been reported and cover the onor site, methods of aspiration, local anaesthesia, processng of fatty tissue,2 reinjection, and stability of the graft. ne such technique is that proposed by Coleman,2 in which he Luer-Lok® syringe system is necessary throughout the rocedure. A 10 ml Luer-Lok® syringe attached to a 2-holed cannula s used to harvest autologous fat. Care should be taken not to amage the fatty parcels. The graft can be processed using entrifugation: the syringes are spun at 3000 rpm for 3 min, fter which time the oil and aqueous layers are decanted and rained.3 The next step is injection of the fat using a 1 ml Luerok® syringe. However, transferring fatty tissue from the 0 ml syringe to the 1 ml syringe can be difficult. Coleman laced the 10 ml syringe in the open barrel of a 1 ml syringe rom which the plunger had been removed and held the 1 ml yringe upwards and obliquely to minimise the introduction 4 f air bubbles. However, this position could cause the tisue to spill. An alternative could be to use a Luer-Lok®