Fat Transplant Problems and Opportunities
Fat transplant has become an increasing trend in the last few years. Transplantations can be performed on various areas, including to buttocks, face, and breast. Buttocks fat transplant is done in Dr. Yoho’s office almost every week. We’ve had experience that may extend to a thousand patients. We have seen very few complications with it because the fat is sterile. It’s kept sterile through the use of enclosed containers and is transplanted almost immediately back into the patient’s own tissues. However, when the volume of fat is increased to large quantities, the risks of problems become higher and higher because the buttocks’ blood vessels and supporting structure can only take so much of the new material before areas of fat become isolated and susceptible to infection. We have seen this in several cases where very large quantities of fat were used. The result is a prolonged recovery and an unhappy patient, intravenous antibiotics and procedures to wash whatever fat we can out of the buttocks. For this reason, we’ve limited our volume to a sensible amount and don’t claim to produce very full buttocks with one procedure. That said, repeat procedures can be done and improvement is progressive.
Facial fat transplant, of course, has been of great interest to the cosmetic surgeon for at least 15 years. Transplant of tiny amounts of fat to the cheek areas around the brow, the lips and chin, and even the muscles of the jaw produce very pleasing results if done carefully and by an experienced surgeon. It’s a bit tedious, but the tiny amounts of fat transplanted make for very smooth results. The problem here is that in the case of massive weight gain later, sometimes the patient ends up with a very fat face. This fat transplant to the face, if done properly, is permanent or at least very, very long-lasting. The general rule of thumb is that what you see is what you get after about three to four months.
Breast fat transplant is a very different kind of procedure. We do perform breast fat transplant and have experience with hundreds of cases, but it basically doesn’t work in breasts that are very, very small, because the breast can’t support and give nutrition to the new fat if there’s not much breast to begin with. For larger breasts, breast fat transplant is successful and can make them even larger. The most important point for the potential patient is to understand that they’ll never get an increase in size anything like a breast implant. However, if this is successful, breast fat transplant produces natural results and rarely any mammogram changes. The fear of the mammogram changes looking like breast cancer is generally misplaced, although I suppose it’s possible. The mammogram changes that show breast cancer are relatively characteristic of breast cancer, and any breast surgery can produce calcification and scarring that is visible on a mammogram that doesn’t look like breast cancer. That said, the small possibility of a biopsy for breast fat transplant in the future mistaken for breast cancer must be factored in by the potential patient. We’ve actually never seen, in our practice, abnormal mammograms after breast fat transplant. They always seem to come back “interval increase in breast size with no apparent other change.”
In any case, there are risks and the patient should be aware of it all before fat transplant. This article isn’t complete and you need to speak with Dr. Yoho about your specific situation and he can tell you what to expect and what the potential problems are for your case and your body type. Please visit Dr. Yoho's main website for more information on many types of cosmetic procedures. Here, you can also find contact information to make an appointment for your complimentary consultation.
