Background: With an increase in recent years in the number of people receiving cosmetic facial injection treatments of hyaluronic acid, the incidence of hyaluronic acid embolism has also increased commensurately. Hyaluronic acid embolism leads to serious complications, including blindness, eye and eyelid movement disorders, skin necrosis, and cerebral embolism. However, there is a lack of robust clinical evidence regarding the benefits of treatment for hyaluronic acid embolism by intraarterial thrombolysis therapy. Methods: This study included 24 patients with a decrease in visual acuity and other complications induced by facial hyaluronic acid injection. Patients underwent emergency intraarterial thrombolysis therapy by injection of hyaluronidase (500 to 1500 units) alone or hyaluronidase (750 to 1500 units) combined with urokinase (100,000 to 250,000 units), followed in both cases by a general symptomatic treatment and nutritional therapy. Results: Ten (42 percent) of 24 patients ultimately had improvements to visual acuity, even when the clinical application of the thrombolytic treatments had passed the recommended window for optimal treatment. In all cases, patients’ facial skin necrosis was restored to nearly normal appearance. In addition, the authors found that hyaluronidase combined with urokinase was a more effective therapy than hyaluronidase alone. Conclusions: The authors’ results indicate that intraarterial thrombolysis therapy is beneficial to patients suffering from blindness induced by hyaluronic acid embolism. The therapy was shown to be worthy of clinical application because it alleviated the impairment to patients’ vision and was also beneficial in the recovery from other serious complications, including eye movement disorder, eye edema, headaches, and skin necrosis. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, IV.

Hyaluronic acid (HA) cosmetic injection is a minimally invasive and nonsurgical, rejuvenating therapy used in China and overseas. It is effective and nonsurgical and significantly reduces downtime. HA could be used as a soft tissue filler given its glycosaminoglycan structure, which promotes water retention and consequently volumizes and outlines the skin contour. 1 With the rapidly growing application of HA injections, the numbers of reported cosmetic injection complications have also incrementally

Background Vascular embolism is a serious complication of hyaluronic acid (HA) filler cosmetic injection and hyaluronidase injection has been proposed as the treatment. Until now there is a lack of adequate clinical evidence regarding the benefits of treatment for HA filler-induced vascular embolism by percutaneous facial or supratrochlear arterial hyaluronidase injection. Objectives To evaluate the efficacy of percutaneous facial or supratrochlear arterial hyaluronidase injection as a rescue treatment for HA filler-induced vascular embolism. Methods We included 17 patients with vascular embolism after facial HA filler injection. Intraarterial injection of 1500 units hyaluronidase was performed via facial artery for thirteen cases with skin necrosis and via supratrochlear arterial for four cases with severe ptosis and skin necrosis but no visual impairment. Simultaneously, the general symptomatic treatment and nutritional therapy were performed. Results After hyaluronidase injection, the facial skin necrosis in all cases was restored and the ptosis in the four cases was also significantly relieved. Patients were subsequently followed for 1 month to 1 year. The skin necrosis in 16 patients were completely healed and only 1 patient had small, superficial scars. Conclusions It is effective to alleviate the skin necrosis and ptosis resulting from HA filler embolism via percutaneous facial or supratrochlear arterial hyaluronidase injection.

Background Chyle fat transplantation has shown positive effects on preexisting human hypertrophic scars (HSs) in a nude mouse HS graft model. Methods Hypertrophic scar fragments were obtained from 5 surgically treated burn patients and implanted into the backs of nude mice in 3 groups: group A, control; group B, triamcinolone; and group C, chyle fat. The specimens were implanted after the corresponding intralesional injection in each group, and the mice were observed for 4 weeks. In total, 18 mice and 72 scar specimens were studied. After 4 weeks, the HSs were removed from the mice. Then, the scar weights, histology, and decorin staining were assessed to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy. Results An obviously significant difference was observed in the HS weight reduction between groups A and C (P < 0.01), and a significant difference in the HS weight reduction was observed between groups A and B (P < 0.05). However, there was no significant difference between groups B and C. The treatment groups (groups B and C) showed strong decorin staining. Furthermore, the decorin staining was much stronger in group C than in group B (P < 0.05). Significant differences in extracellular matrix deposition were observed among the 3 groups, as determined by Masson trichrome staining. Both groups B and C showed significant therapeutic efficacy compared with group A, and group C exhibited a significant therapeutic effect compared with group B (P < 0.05). Conclusions This study indicates that chyle fat grafting is beneficial for treating HSs.

Background: Cosmetic filler injection can cause a variety of eye complications; however, there is currently no good way to evaluate injury severity and prognosis. By analyzing the injury manifestations of severe ocular complications following cosmetic filler injection and their prognosis, we propose a new injury severity scale. Methods: Twenty-two eyes of 22 patients experiencing ocular complications following cosmetic filler injection were followed for 6 months to observe injury characteristics, manifestations and prognosis. Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), intraocular pressure (IOP), split lamp microscopy, fundus photography, optical coherence tomography (OCT), and fundus fluorescein angiography were examined at the onset and follow-up visits. Results: According to the immediate BCVA at the time of injury (with the presence or absence of brain infarction), a new injury severity scale was proposed, namely, Grades 1-4. Grade 1 (4 patients) and Grade 2 (2 patients) tended to have no atrophy of the globe. Grade 3 (12 patients) and Grade 4 (4 patients) were more likely to develop atrophy of the globe (4/12 patients and 2/4 patients, respectively) at the last follow-up. Grade 3 and Grade 4 were more likely to be complicated with ophthalmoplegia and ptosis (7/16 patients). Conclusions: The new injury severity scale we proposed can determine the prognosis of different ocular complications following cosmetic filler injection. Accordingly, we can inform injured patients regarding the possibility of phthisis bulbi and the extent of improvement of visual impairment, ophthalmoplegia, ptosis and stroke.