The use of one’s own fat as a supplement to an implant or one’s own tissue is called autologous fat grafting. This is a common procedure that is performed at our Scottsdale plastic surgery practice in conjunction with a breast augmentation, breast revision, mastopexy (breast lift) or breast reduction to create more contour, volume, minimizing rippling and wrinkling, maintaining a soft and natural breast.
How It Works:
Oftentimes one’s own tissue or anatomy is insufficient to obtain an acceptable aesthetic result and fat is used as a tool to improve the result. Fat is typically harvested with liposuction through small incisions that are well-concealed. Common donor-sites are: love handles, abdomen or inner thighs. Once the fat is harvested, it is then prepared in an air-tight closed system, where the fat is washed of its contaminants and purified into a device that resembles a salad spinner. Once the fat has been prepared, it is then placed into small syringes and injected under the skin of the breast to achieve an improved contour.
Benefits:
The fat can be used to improve the cleavage, fill in the upper pole of the breast, or even to make asymmetric breasts more even. Fat grafting can be performed in conjunction with the breast surgery (augmentation/lift/reduction) or it can also be performed as an independent procedure. Fat grafting is performed either under a general or local anesthetic, and does not prolong the recovery process of the breast surgery whatsoever.
It is important to understand that there are no medical risks or inherent dangers of fat grafting. It does not increase risk for breast cancer, it does not make it more difficult to detect breast cancer and it does not stimulate normal cells to become malignant. Fat can, however, calcify (fat necrosis), oil gland cysts can form, and some of the fat injected can be absorbed, minimizing the result. Typically one round of fat grafting is sufficient, however, some patients do require more than one treatment to achieve the desired aesthetic outcome.
If you are interested in autologous fat grafting, please call our office at (480) 423-1973 or request a consultation with Dr. Sigalove.
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