The Role of Autologous Fat Grafting in Rhinoplasty

Saadoun R, Solari MG, Rubin JP.

What this paper says

A review of fat grafting in both surgical and filler rhinoplasty, arguing that the patient's own fat can improve the quality of the nasal covering in a way commercial fillers, being inert, cannot.

Overview

Rhinoplasty often includes grafting to reach the intended result, and transferring the patient's own fat is one such method, used to add volume, hide irregularities and improve the quality of the nasal skin and soft tissue covering. Minimally invasive approaches using injectable filler have grown in parallel. The article covers the use of fat in both settings.

Sections of note

Review article; the abstract reports no patient numbers, no outcomes, no complication rates and no follow up.
Fat transfer is used to increase volume, camouflage irregularities and improve the quality of the nasal covering.
Non surgical approaches use filler injection to produce volume changes instead of extensive surgery.
The authors state fat used as a filler avoids compromising the nasal covering.
They attribute that to the regenerative potential of fat grafts, which they say improves the quality of surrounding tissue.
Commercial injectable fillers are described as inert by contrast.
Fat grafts are described as abundant, biocompatible and cost effective.

What it means for a patient

Fat comes from the patient's own body, so it requires a small harvest site but no manufactured material.
The claimed advantage over commercial filler is biological effect on the skin, not just added volume.
Transferred fat is partly absorbed over time, which the abstract does not address.
No rates, outcomes or comparisons against commercial fillers are reported.

Why this paper matters

The nasal covering determines how well a reshaped framework shows through, and thin or damaged skin limits what surgery can achieve. This review positions fat as both filler and tissue treatment. Its claims about regenerative effect are asserted rather than measured here.

Terms

Autologous fat grafting: moving the patient's own fat from one part of the body to another.
Skin soft tissue envelope: the skin, fat and muscle covering the nasal framework.
Liquid or nonsurgical rhinoplasty: reshaping the nose with injectable filler instead of surgery.
Inert: causing no biological reaction in surrounding tissue.
Biocompatible: tolerated by the body without rejection.

Summary written by rhinoplasty.cc from the abstract, 2026-09-09; not medical advice. The authors' own abstract follows.

From the abstract

“Rhinoplasty is one of the most popular aesthetic surgeries worldwide and often includes grafting techniques to achieve optimal results. One of these grafting techniques is autologous fat transfer, which has been used to increase volume, camouflage irregularities, and/or improve the quality of the nasal skin-soft…”

Excerpt; the full abstract is on PubMed.