Joris van Dongen

32 Chapter 2 RESULTS Included studies A total of 3038 studies were identified after database searching. 2955 articles were excluded after abstract screening. 59 full text studieswere assessed on eligibility criteria. Fourteen studies were excluded based on the use of a non-intraoperative protocol for isolation as experimental method 7,23-35 . Seven studies described isolation protocols in general but gave no results 36-42 . Seven studies were excluded based on the lack of a control group ( i.e. non-intraoperative isolation protocols or other intraoperative isolation procedures) 10,18,43-47 . Four studies were excluded based on their study design 48-51 . Three studies were excluded based on the use of culture methods to isolate ASCs, because culture methods are incompatible with intraoperative applications 52-54 . Four studies used only centrifugation, centrifugation or RBC lysis buffer as isolation protocol and were thereby excluded 55-58 . Three studies used the blood saline fraction of lipoaspirate and were thereby excluded 59-61 . Four studies did not describe an outcome of interest 62-65 . Four additional studies were identified through other sources (Fig. 1). Thus, thirteen studies with eighteen intraoperative isolation procedures remained for analysis. Study characteristics In total, 93 subjects were enrolled in the thirteen studies. Nine studies reported gender of which 95%was female (n=58). Nine studies reported the mean age or age variance of the subjects and ten other studies described the use of infiltration (Table 3). No meta- analysis could be performed because the metrics and outcomes were too diverse.