Buttock Augmentation by Autologous Fat Injections
I have previously discussed buttock enlargement through the use of implants, known as implant or alloplastic gluteoplasty. Another popular option is buttock enlargement through the use of fat injections or transplants, known as autogenous gluteoplasty. Fat injections as a method for soft tissue volume enhancement is well known and has a good track history in the face where smaller amounts of fat are needed, usually in the range of 1 to 10ccs. In the buttocks, however, much larger amounts of fat are needed to make a significant size difference, usually in the range of hundreds of ccs per buttock.
Here in my practice in Indianapolis, I always discuss the merits of buttock implants vs fat injections for buttock enlargement. Fat injections to the buttocks have several advantages. First, it eliminates the need for a synthetic implant and all the inherest risks such as infection, implant malpositioning, and notoriously a seroma build-up or fluid collection. Second, the buttock enlargement operation is much simpler, less invasive and has less pain after surgery. Thirdly, the amount of recovery is dramatically different with no activity limitations after surgery unlike implants. Fourth, there is an added cosmetic bonus from the harvest at the donor site. Some other body area gets to be reduced at the same time, usually the abdomen, waistline, or thigh areas. A two-for-one bonus if you will.
However, despite these significant advantages, fat injections to the buttocks for enlargement has one big potential disadvantage. How much of the fat will survive and get the volume that was put in at the time of surgery? That is an unknown question. And the issue of volume retention of injected fat has persisted with the use of this fat technique since its inception. What we do know for certain is this; 100% of the fat will not survive. Somewhere in the range of 1% – 99% will be the amount of fat that will persist. In larger fat injection volumes, such as the buttocks (and there is no larger amount of fat that is injected anywhere), a good result is probably in the 50 – 60% range for most patients. Therefore, I always tell my patients here in Indianapolis this: I will over-correct with fat injections to the buttocks (I don’t think you can ever inject too much fat or get the buttocks too big as they will only hold so much) and be prepared that it will likely take more than one fat injection session to get the best volume improvement. Unlike a buttock implant, which remains the same after one surgery, fat injections to the buttocks are unstable and require more than one surgery to get close to the same result.
The most important question for patients who want to avoid a buttock implant by undergoing fat injections for buttock enlargement then is; is the price and recovery from possibly two surgeries better than having a buttock implant? That is a question that each patient has to decide on their own in consultation with their plastic surgeon.
Dr Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana