Application Detail
Description of Medical Service
Autologous fat grafting (AFG) is the harvesting, preparation, and re-injection or autologous fat, with or without specialised fat grafting equipment. It includes live fat cells being harvested from a donor site on the patient, prepared in theatre by a variety of methods to separate and purify the fat cells, and injected back into the defective area. It relies on the fat stem cells remaining viable in the transferred site. Fat transfer, or fat grafting, or lipo-filling, or lipo-modelling, can be extremely useful for recontouring congenital facial deformities and serious burns scars.AFG is more complex than scar revision and an item number will improve resource allocation and monitoring of use.
The proposed service is for autologous fat grafting (i.e. harvesting, preparation and injection of adipocytes) as an independent procedure or in conjunction with another procedure for:
i. Correction of defects arising from craniofacial disorders
ii. Correction of burn scars and associated contractures
Description of Medical Condition
Autologus fat grafting is relevant for defects arising from the following medical conditions:i. Craniofacial disorders with facial asymmetry requiring reconstruction and recontouring – These include congenital craniofacial syndromes and acquired defects due to disorders (including Parry–Rhomberg disease)
ii. Burn scars and contractures – These include major burns where thin split thickness skin graft has been used.
Reason for Application
New application for Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) fundingMedical Service Type
Therapeutic medical servicePrevious Application Number/s
Not applicableAssociated Documentation
Application Form
Application form (PDF 1102 KB)Application form (Word 556 KB)
Consultation Survey
Consultation survey (PDF 463 KB)Consultation survey (Word 67 KB)
PICO Confirmation
PICO Confirmation (PDF 1247 KB)PICO Confirmation (Word 174 KB)