Topic: Management of Dermal Filler Complications

In 2020, over 3.4 million cosmetic dermal fillers were injected in the United States and it generated $2,712 M in revenue. It represented a fraction of the total number of dermal fillers injected worldwide. Although most injections were safe and provided satisfying results, there were still many reports of significant complications of dermal fillers. Most complications were local effects that were minor and reversible, such as over or under correction. Other complications were more serious, such as necrosis. However, it was reported that episodes of blindness and even cerebral infarction were caused by accidental intravascular dermal filler injection. By 2019, 146 cases had been published in the literature. However, the number of unreported cases was unknown, and given that the National Library of Medicine had noted that physicians tended to underreport their practice complications, the actual number was likely to be higher. The literature is replete with suggestions, flow charts, and paradigms to treat filler complications. These reports often group soft tissue complications with CNS and ocular complications. The results show that the efficacy of local treatments and cutaneous effects are applied to treat devastating ocular effects, despite the lack of efficacy evidence for their application in these serious situations. This Special Issue is dedicated to understanding what we know about the incidence, etiology, and therapeutics for the soft tissue complications of cutaneous dermal fillers and the incidence, etiology, and therapeutics for the ocular and CNS complications of cutaneous dermal fillers. The treatments are quite distinct, and the outcomes are completely different. We hope through critical analysis, the readers can be exposed to best practices to avoid, treat and triage a complication of any type of dermal filler injection, cutaneous, ocular or CNS arise.

15 May 2023