Background: Fat injections has become one of the most popular plastic surgery procedures in the past decade. Used for a wide variety of face and body procedures, variable voluminization amounts can be created. Body contouring obviously takes more fat to achieve its effect and is often combined with aggressive liposuction to get maximal fat harvest to be processed for injection.
For augmentation of the breasts and buttocks, fat injections are an alternative choice for some patients. For buttock augmentation fat injections are preferred because a larger result and less of a recovery usually occurs than what implants can do. Conversely in the breasts, implants are preferred because they are more reliable and can create larger results.
Fat injections, while appealing, are not widely used for breast augmentation as many women have too little fat to use and sustained breast volume is far from assured. But for smaller breast augmentation volume needs fat injections have a defined role, that despite its shortcomings, may make it preferable to an implant.
Case Study: This 42 year-old female presented for liposuction of her saddle bag areas. (outer upper thighs) She could not lose this fat no matter what level of diet and exercise she underwent. She finally came to realize that this body area required a surgical solution. She also expressed dissatisfaction with the shape of her breasts, most notably the loss of any upper pole fullness. She did not think her breasts were too small and she was not unhappy about the mild sagging that they had.
Under general anesthesia, her saddle bag areas underwent liposuction with an aspirate volume of 1,100cc. Filtering and washing ended up with a fat concentrate of 470ccs. Through three different entrance sites, 235cc was injected into the upper half of each breast.
Her three month after surgery results a sustained increase in the upper pole of her breasts that was both visibly and by feel evident. It is estimated that she kept about 50% of the fat volume that was injected.
To help restore upper pole fullness in the breasts, fat injections can be a good alternative to placing a small implant. It is less invasive, has a quicker recovery and does not preclude opting for an implant later if desired. Like an implant fat injections will not lift up a sagging breast, it will merely add volume to select quadrants of the breasts.
Case Highlights:
1) Small volume breast augmentation with fat injections can be done in lieu of placing a breast implant.
2) Loss of upper pole fullness is a common sequelae of aging and after pregnancy breasts.
3) 100cc to 200cc of fat injected in the upper pole of the breast can restore some fullness.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana