TauTona, a medical device firm, has obtained 510(k) approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and a new patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for the TauTona tissue injector (TTI), a hand-held adipose tissue transfer tool.

The battery powered tissue injector has been designed to simplify fat grafting through an even, controlled rate so the surgeon can focus on placement of the fat.

The single-use, hand-held injector manages the pressure and flow rates during injection and is able to efficiently deliver the adipose tissue without clogging.

It has been designed to accommodate the surgeon's current procedure; working with off-the-shelf cannulas, syringes (reservoir), and current fat processing techniques.

TauTona managing partner Dr Geoffrey Gurtner noted today most fat grafting is done using a 100-year-old technology: the syringe - a device that can be clumsy for clinicians to use.

"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.

"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. As a practicing surgeon, I know the importance of offering predictable and 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," Dr Gurtner added.

The company also announced that other patents are in pending for the tool.

TauTona sold its Surgical Marker technology to Novadaq Technologies earlier 2013.