Category: Natural Fat Transfer

Dr. Koplin Honored in LA Business Journal

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Lawrence Koplin has been honored with a spot in Los Angeles Business Journal’s “Top Doctors Los Angeles: Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery” article, published last week.

Read Dr. Koplin’s short biography as seen in the LA Business Journal:

Dr. Koplin has been recognized as an innovative artist in the field of plastic surgery. With more than 20 years of experience, he has pushed the boundaries of plastic surgery, refining facial and body rejuvenation techniques to achieve revolutionary, natural-looking results. Dr. Koplin holds double board certification in both General Surgery and Plastic Surgery, and these qualifications allow him to perform advanced, complex procedures that other surgeons shy away from doing. Dr. Koplin’s areas of specialty are breast enlargement and reduction, body sculpting using liposuction, rejuvenation of the aging face, neck and eyelids, and natural fat transfer.

In fact, Dr. Koplin has participated in the development of a cutting-edge procedure that uses a serum made from a patient’s own fat cells to directly improve their skin quality and tone. This serum, which Dr. Koplin has termed “NanoStem Serum,” is injected into the skin to create a healthier, more youthful complexion.

The serum is often used in conjunction with an innovative technique called Natural Fat Transfer, also known as fat grafting, which restores the softness and fullness of youth naturally and without traditional surgery. Natural Fat Transfer is the process of transplanting live fat cells from an area of your body where you don’t want it—such as your tummy or hips—to an area where you do want it, such as your lips, facial lines, temples, breasts, hands and even earlobes.

Dr. Koplin is ambidextrous, and is so attentive to detail that he custom-built his office with two operating rooms: a right-handed operating room and a left. He specially designed the rooms so that if a patient is getting a procedure on their right side, he operates in the right-handed room.

Achieving lasting, natural-looking results is a top priority for Dr. Koplin. As his expertise and experience indicate, he is an artist, a revolutionary, and a perfectionist in the field of plastic surgery—which explains this prestigious acknowledgement by the Los Angeles Business Journal.

NanoStem Serum Success Story

Recently, I had a 12 year-old patient who fell and split her left upper lip when she was 9 months old. The lip was repaired at UCLA Hospital but the wound separated, leaving her with a depressed, discolored scar. At age four, she had a mole removed from her chin, which also healed very poorly and was depressed on both ends. She had fillers injected which were extremely painful, did not last very long, but temporarily improved the deformity- and did not want to continue this for a lifetime. She was sufficiently self-conscious to be willing to undergo revision surgery to permanently improve the situation.

I confided that surgical revision- which would involve cutting out both scars- would not guarantee significant improvement, and that she would have to endure at least a year of swelling and redness as the new scars matured. In other words, she would have to get worse to get better.

After discussion with her and her mother (who is a physician), we settled on a plan to fill the depressed scars with her own natural fat by injecting it directly into the skin. In the operating room, a small amount of fat was removed from the lower abdomen under extremely low vacuum liposuction. The fat was washed and centrifuged. The lowest (most dense and rich in stem cells) portion of the fat (closest to the tip of the syringe) was injected via tiny needles into the left upper lip indentation. Impressive improvement and resolution of the concavity was noted. The chin indentation on both ends were also injected.

The remaining portion of this “supercharged” stem-cell rich fat was then prepared for extraction of the stem cells and stromal vascular fraction for injection into the scars. It was emulsified to destroy the fat cells and then strained through a sterile Nano screen to remove the cells. The liquid was then centrifuged to separate into three segments: oil, yellow Nanoserum and pink Nanoserum. The oil was discarded. The yellow particulate Nano Stem Serum was injected directly into both ends of the transverse chin scars (where they were indented). The clear pink Nano Stem Serum was injected directly into the left upper lip scar.

The “After” photos (to view, click “Natural Fat Transfer”) are taken one full year after her procedure. She notes that she is thrilled that not only is the depression corrected, but that the scars look much better. Additionally, the dark discoloration (particularly at the top of the upper lip scar) has completed faded to normal. The chin scar has faded as well. Note that she is not wearing makeup in any photographs and how the texture of her scars has improved as well as the color and the indentations.

Natural Fat Transfer and LMK NanoStem Serum

Natural Fat Transfer using NanoStem Serum (NSS) is a very important component of your facial rejuvenation journey. To directly improve skin quality and tone, we create a serum from your body’s own fat cells. This serum is injected into the skin to create a healthier, more youthful complexion. Most essential to a successful procedure is working with a well-trained, experienced plastic surgeon who will artistically and carefully place your injections.

The procedure is safe and simple—no incisions or surgery involved. It also has a quick recovery time. The results of this procedure are a smoother, healthier, and younger looking complexion. Usually, Natural Fat Transfer is employed in conjunction with liposuction because fat is already being removed, and this way it can have an additional benefit to smooth and cushion the desired area. Natural Fat Transfer and NanoStem Serum are also performed as stand-alone procedures to artfully rejuvenate faces, earlobes, and hands.

Stem cells reside in fat as well as other tissues in the body. The process of actively extracting, concentrating and administering these fat-derived stem cells has been proven in medical studies to have beneficial effects, and its function as an aesthetic filler under skin is well-documented (1). There is very little risk for negative effects of using fat as a filler because no one is allergic to their own fat.

First, a physician extracts natural, healthy fat cells from under your skin using liposuction. The fat layer resides below the dermis and epidermis (skin) layers. Removing fat from an unwanted area is an added benefit of NSS.

The key to this procedure is a gentle extraction of the fat. The fat is then washed and excess water is removed. Then it is put into a Nano Emulsifier and run through a Nano Filter to be processed and concentrated.

The washed, emulsified, and filtered fat is then centrifuged, where it separates into oil, particulate fraction, and liquid fraction.

The separated elements are now ready for injection. The physician should take care to make sure that the bed where the fat is to be injected will accept the new fat and allow it to thrive. This procedure is all about skillful and artistic technique—be confident that your medical professional will not place your fat in a lumpy or unnatural-looking way.

To fill deeper lines, particulate fraction is injected. Liquid fraction treats the finer lines. The results will be a smoother texture, less visible wrinkles, healthier skin color, and cushioning and support for the epidermal layer. The results should be permanent when done properly. The injected fat that thrives will have a continuous blood supply, so with a well-executed procedure the extra volume provided by fat transfer should last for many years (2). NSS has more permanent results than injectable fillers which require reinjection to maintain the benefits (2).

Dr. Koplin has been doing the Natural Fat Transfer procedure for more than 20 years and has participated in the recent development and refinement of NanoStem Serum techniques. He holds a double board certification in both General Surgery and Plastic Surgery, and is regarded as an innovative artist in the field of plastic surgery. An expert and perfectionist, Dr. Koplin’s top priority is to craft a youthful, natural-looking elegance. Read more or watch a video from Dr. Koplin.

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Sources

1. George KH Li, Joseph HP Chung, Lawrence HL Lieu, Velda LY Chow, Gregory Ian SK Lau, and Richie CL Chan, “Fat grafting: A safe and effective treatment of craniofacial depression,” Surgical Practice 19, no. 2 (May 2015):75-81, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1744-1633.12114/abstract.

2. West County Plastic Surgeons of Washington University, “Fat Grafting,” http://westcountyplasticsurgeons.wustl.edu/Surgery/Body-Contouring/Fat-Grafting, 2015.

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