FDA Clears TauTona Tissue Injector

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given 510(k) clearance to a handheld fat tissue transfer tool from TauTona Group. The single-use device is designed to allow surgeons to perform fat grafting procedures precisely and more efficiently by delivering tissue at an even, controlled rate.

“Today most fat grafting is done using a 100-year-old technology: the syringe — a device that can be clumsy for clinicians to use,” said Geoffrey Gurtner M.D., managing partner at TauTona and professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the Stanford School of Medicine in Stanford, Calif. “Syringes often clog and can lead to difficulty in tissue transfer procedures. The TauTona Tissue Injector is designed to help physicians simplify their fat grafting procedures, which may lead to reduced costs. We designed TTI with the aim of providing clinicians an easy-to-use, ergonomic tool to improve the efficiency of fat transfer procedures.”

The TauTona Tissue Injector (TTI)  is a battery powered tool that requires no capital investment. The device manages the pressure and flow rates during injection and efficiently delivers fat tissue to the desired area without clogging. The TTI is designed to accommodate the surgeon’s current procedure; working with off-the-shelf cannulas, syringes (reservoir), and current fat processing techniques.

“At TauTona we believe the absence of a specialized fat grafting tool has made it more difficult for surgeons to provide their patients with precise, repeatable results,” Gurtner said. “As a practicing surgeon, I know the importance of offering consistent fat grafting results, with a reduced procedure time. Our hope is that the TTI will allow physicians to improve the procedure’s efficiency and ergonomics by reducing the time to re-injection. We believe that an effective fat transfer tool could increase the number of physicians using the technique and increase the number of procedures performed.”

The company has received a key U.S. patent for TTI from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and has other patents pending for the tool.

Fat grafting, in which a patient’s adipose tissue is moved from one area of the body to another, is a becoming increasingly popular in both aesthetic and reconstructive procedures. Last year, TauTona sold its Surgical Marker technology to Novadaq Technologies Inc., a flourescent imaging developer based in Bonita Springs, Fla. 

TauTona Group is a medical device incubator and investor that develops of surgical products for the reconstructive and aesthetic markets. Co-founded in 2010 by two Stanford School of Medicine surgery professors, TauTona partners with entrepreneurs, institutions and corporations to fund, develop and build surgical devices.