Expert guide: Cosmetic & Plastic Surgery 2015 20 June 2015 June 2015 21 ExpErt guidE:dEntistry 2014 8 August 2014 August 2014 9 W orld Wars I and II estab-lished the need for mod-ern day plastic surgery. As a Marine, the Korean War convinced me to become a plastic surgeon. Working my way through medical school as a pharmacist provided me with tools that have been useful as I evolved into the area of regenerative medicine. My residency years in-cluded general surgery, cardiovascu-lar surgery, hand surgery, maxillofa-cial surgery as well as plastic surgery. In 1973, I became board certified in plastic surgery. However, my educa-tion never ceased.I have worked with fat and an adi-pose source of stem cells for 35 years. In the beginning, I had no concept of stem cells or why I was observing regenerative changes in my patients after fat injections. 25 years ago, my hand surgery professor referred a pa-tient that had a severe de-gloving type of injury to her right upper extremity with high level damage to all three nerves (median, ulnar and radial). She was left with a claw type extrem-ity with only shoulder motion. The exposed nerves were causing such severe paraesthesias and phantom pain that she was considering a high level amputation. Three years post injury I performed multiple fat injec-tions in an effort to insulate the ex-posed nerves. I was confounded by the return of both sensory and motor nerve function as well as significant decrease in pain levels. 20 years lat-er she has continued with improved function with the later use of pro-cessed stem cell rich fat grafts.Almost five years ago I was awarded the first FDA approved Medikan ™ Lipokit, a totally enclosed fat process-ing unit imported by Palomar. Com-bining SlimLipo laser neck tightening with large volume Lipokit processed fat and PRP to the face resulted in my OPERA Lift procedure.Lewis J. Obi M.D., FRSA +1 904 399 0905 www.obiplasticsurgery.com www.stemcellsurgeryflorida.com THE USE OF ADULT STEM CELLS IN PLASTIC SURGERY & REGENERATIVE MEDICINE Surgical Scaffolds, 3D Imaging, 3D Printers and More By Lewis J. Obi M.D., FRSA USA The OPERA Lift is a totally non-sur-gical “3D Space Lift”. Shortly after my first case, I began enhancing my results by integrating Cell Assisted Lipo transfer technique (CAL). CAL is produced by adding collagenase digested stem cells to the processed Lipokit fat. This increases the fat graft survival to almost 100% Shortly afterwards, Dr. Melvin Shiff-man of L.A. asked me to contribute a chapter to the first book ever pub-lished on “Stem Cells in Aesthetic Proce-dures”. Springer Pub-lications released the book last November, almost three years af-ter I had written my chapter (chapter 29).During an international lecture se-ries with Dr. Mark Berman of Santa Monica, I was encouraged to join his newly established California Stem Cell Treatment Center. CSCTC later became IRB based Cell Surgical Net-work which I also joined. CSN of Florida is based at my 12,000 square foot licensed plastic surgery centre in Jacksonville. We are now growing from our three founding members to other specialties. The addition of a FDA IRB in the future may allow us to culture, expand and bank adi-pose derived stem cells. At this point we would be able to fast track into the area of advanced 3D imaging and printing of tissues. On a research lev-el, this is what Dr. Lawrence Bonas-sar PhD of Cornell is studying.usa