Breast augmentation remains as one of the most popular female body enhancement procedures in the world. It creates an instantaneous and assured effect because of the placement of an implant into the breast tissues. While an implant creates a dramatic and sustained long-term effect, it is an implant which incurs all of the potential risks and complications that come with its use. Even in a perfect breast implant result, there will likely be maintenance of the implants eventually needed since they are not known lifelong devices.
Because of potential and eventual breast implant issues, the use of fat injections has emerged as a potential breast augmentation alternative for some women. The use of one’s own fat is understandably appealing but it is nor a perfect option either and most women are not going to qualify for the fat injection procedure. Fat injections are unpredictable in terms of survival and persistence and one has to have enough fat to harvest by liposuction to do the procedure.
But who is a good candidate for fat injection breast augmentation? One such potential candidate is the younger women who have small but perky breasts with good breast skin. They often are thinner, although not always so, but do have a visible abdominal pooch where several inches of skin and fat which can be pinched. While other body areas can have fat harvested, the greatest depot site by surface area is almost always the abdomen and flanks. Ideally it is best to be able to harvest at least a 1000cc of aspirate which when concentrated, will create an injectate of 150cc to 200cc per breast.
It is easy to see at this injectable fat volume that the breast augmentation effect is going to be limited to around a 1/2 cup size increase. Depending upon the initial size of the breast, the cup size change may be slightly more or less. There is also the issue of how much of the fat injectate survives and persists. Using simple math and the halving principle, (1/2 of the liposuction aspirate can be used and 1/2 of it will survive…and split between two breasts), a 1000cc liposuction harvest for example will turn into the equivalent of a 125cc breast augmentation effect.
In many young women who are often thinner, fat injection breast augmentation may not be a good choice due to lack of an adequate breast size increase. But for those younger women who are interested in a fat redistribution effect (flatter abdomen and a small natural increase in breast size), fat injection breast augmentation is a consideration.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana