TY - JOUR T1 - Oro-facial fibrosis in systemic sclerosis: a reconstructive journey JF - BMJ Case Reports JO - BMJ Case Reports DO - 10.1136/bcr-2020-236663 VL - 13 IS - 10 SP - e236663 AU - Faith Hyun Kyung Jeon AU - Michelle Griffin AU - Jajini Varghese AU - Peter Edward Michael Butler Y1 - 2020/10/01 UR - http://casereports.bmj.com/content/13/10/e236663.abstract N2 - Oro-facial fibrosis presents a significant disease burden in patients with systemic sclerosis, but there remains no established treatment modality. Autologous fat grafting is a minimally invasive surgical procedure that is now increasingly recognised for its regenerative capacity, propagating an expansion of heterogeneous indications beyond volume restoration, including fibrotic diseases such as systemic sclerosis. We present a 42-year-old woman with oro-facial involvement of systemic sclerosis leading to severe limitation in mouth opening and closure, with marked retraction of the lower lip and gingival display. We describe the reconstructive journey over a 12-year period, where the antifibrotic effect of autologous fat grafting served as the basis on which a series of surgical procedures were performed to achieve functional and aesthetic improvement. Autologous fat grafting provides a novel treatment modality for oro-facial skin fibrosis, previously considered a non-treatable disease manifestation of systemic sclerosis. ER -