An Easy and Practical Method for Centrifuge under Sterile Settings in Fat Injection Process

In fat injection applications, fat grafts can be washed, filtered, and centrifuged after being transferred. After washing and centrifuge, similar results were observed in the region where fat had been injected in terms of skin quality and patient satisfaction. Different speeds and durations for the centrifuge process performed after grafting were specified by different authors. This process requires transferring fat graft into sterile tubes and transferring it back after centrifugation in a sterile way. Because material on the operating table is taken out and returned back after the process, ultimate care and sterility are needed.

We used an easy and practical method for this process. We first placed the fat grafts into sterile centrifuge tubes with screw caps that are compatible with the Elektromag centrifuge device (Istanbul, Turkey). We obtained a sterile latex surgical glove. We placed a tube into the third finger hole of this glove. We used the second and fourth fingers for knotting. We repeated these steps with another glove for the other tube. We removed the fingers from the gloves by cutting the fingers from the most proximal end. Therefore, we obtained tubes filled with fat graft within two sterile latex sheaths. We sent these tubes out for the centrifuge process ([Fig. 1]). We placed them into the centrifuge device in a way that one tube was opposite from the other. Once the centrifuge process was completed, we cut off the latex sheaths at their tips with a scissor and were able to take them into the sterile area in a sterile way. Thus, we could take not only the fat graft inside the tubes but also the tubes into the surgical area in a sterile way. This allowed us to use the fat grafts in an easier way ([Fig. 2]).

Fig. 1 (A) Sterile glove and sterile tube. (B) Knotting by using fingers. (C) Cutting the fingers that are most proximal. (D) Centrifuge process.

Fig. 2 (A) Cutting of the latex sheaths at their tips with a scissors. (B) Taking them into the sterile area in a sterile way.

Consequently, taking centrifuge tubes inside the surgical area using surgical gloves is an easy, cheap, practical, and faster method.