Treatment with injectable tissue fillers for aesthetic purposes is increasingly popular. In parallel with this success, questions related to the safety of these treatments and the products involved are being raised more prominently. To gain insight in the safety aspects of injectable tissue fillers, we performed a literature review to collect studies reporting clinical data of injectable tissue fillers. We found several case reports where serious complications after more than three years are described. However, there are only a limited number of well-defined prospective clinical studies available with follow-up periods longer than three years. Furthermore, causes of complications, that is, treatment or product related, are often not specified in literature. Considering the intended functional period of fillers in combination with the known occurrence of long-term complications, there is a need for well-defined prospective clinical studies. In order to be able to discriminate between product failure (a product safety issue) or application methodology (a physician expertise or training issue), better identification of observed complications and whether they are product or treatment related, is needed. For the safe use of the fillers it is important that treatment with injectable tissue fillers is performed by a trained physician, who knows the product specifications and its applications. . Moreover, it is expected that due to increase in life expectancy, the demand for anti-aging treatments, like tissue augmentation with injectable tissue fillers, will grow [2]. Their success has been attributed to the fact that treatments with injectable tissue fillers are fast and appear to be relatively easy [2]. Only a relatively 'simple' subcutaneous injection is needed. Today, various injectable tissue fillers with different characteristics are available, for example, duration of the effect, material type and intended anatomical location.Although the application of an injectable tissue filler seems to be relatively simple and safe, reports of serious adverse effects have appeared in the literature [2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Estimates of the occurrence of severe complications after treatment with various types of injectable tissue fillers range between 1:80 and 1:50,000 patients [9,10]. Adverse side effects can be caused by incorrect injection techniques (treatment related) or by the characteristics of the products (product related) [11,12]. Short-, mid-and long-term complications can be discerned (TABLE 1) [2,13-15]. Short-term complications like pain, swelling, fever, immediate hypersensitivity reactions, occur immediately or within several days past treatment and disappear after several weeks. A more severe short-term complication is necrosis [5,16]. Necrosis occurs immediately or within a few days if blood vessels are obstructed by the filler material or if they are injured during the treatment [17]. Mid-term complications such as delayed inflammatory reactions, ulceration and granuloma reaction may occur after 2-12 months. I...

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The successful transplantation of human materials such as organs, tissues and cells into patients does not only depend on the benefits, but also on the mitigation of risks. To gain insight into recent publications on risks associated with the process of transferring human materials from donor to recipient we performed a horizon scan by reviewing scientific literature and news websites of 2011 on this subject. We found there is ample information on how extended donor criteria, such as donor age, affect the survival rates of organs or patients. Interestingly, gender mismatch does not appear to be a major risk factor in organ rejection. Data on risks of donor tumor transmission was very scarce; however, risk categories for various tumor types have been suggested. In order to avoid rejection, a lot of research is directed towards engineering tissues from a patient's own tissues and cells. Some but not all of these developments have reached the clinic. Developments in the field of stem cell therapy are rapid. However, many hurdles are yet to be overcome before these cells can be applied on a large scale in the clinic. The processes leading to genetic abnormalities in cells differentiated from stem cells need to be identified in order to avoid transplantation of aberrant cells. New insights have been obtained on storage and preservation of human materials, a critical step for success of their clinical use. Likewise, quality management systems have been shown to improve the quality and safety of human materials used for transplantation.

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