Fat grafting or transfer to the breast is a increasingly more common way to enhance or enlarge the breast without breast implants or foreign body. This surgery can be performed alone, with breast lift, and after breast implant explantation. Fat transfer to the breast often involves harvesting fat from another area of the body, this can be an added benifit for patients trying to improve contour and shape or even those undergoing a tummy tuck or other associated procedures. Fat grafting to the breast often provided patients with a more natural breast shape and over all lighter feeling with almost no risk of shoulder or neck pain. In our practice, fat grafting to the breast can be preformed in stages, can be combined with other surgery, and can provide a long lasting and permanent breast enhancement.
“Autologous fat transfer” removes fat from an area of the body that has fat to spare, and places it in the breast for cosmetic enhancement. The results often look and feel natural often achieving 1-2 cups size enhancement in most patients. By using the patient’s own fat, the hard look and feel often associated with implants is eliminated. Many women also like the idea that a foreign material has not been inserted into their bodies. The cosmetic benefit of fat transfer is that the area, usually the abdomen, from which the fat is taken becomes slimmer and more contoured. Fat-transfer to the breast can be ideal for nearly any woman who wants a more sublte enlargement or shaping of the breast. It also a great option for patient who do not want to use a saline or silicone implants, prefers avoiding implant maintinence, long term screening, and future surgical implant exchange.
Benefits of Fat-Transfer Breast Enhancement
For patients not wanting breast augmentation or breast lift alone, using autologous fat transfer has a number of benefits, including the following:
- No risk of implant rejection
- Ability to shape and sculpt the breasts
- Minimal number of incisions
- Reduced scarring
- No risk of capsular contracture
In general, fat grafting to the breast using a patient’s own tissue is more similar in shape, contour and feel to a natural breast than one reconstructed using an implant. Talk to your surgeon about the pros and cons of the different options for breast enhancement surgery using your own body fat
Fat-Transfer Breast Enhancement Procedure
Fat grafting to the breast depends on the clinical situation and expectations of the patients undergoing breast enhancement. All patient considering fat grafting to the breast require a breast examination and studies particularly in patients over 40 years old or with a history of breast disease and cancer. All patients need to have enought fat located on their bodies to safely harvest ensuring an acceptable cosmetic result. The patients who are satisfied with breast shape and postion simply need to determine the degree of enlargement and the area for fat harvest. Patients with sagging breast or ptosis may not have the same degree of success and in some cases may want to defer fat grafting or undergo a secondary treatment. Patients with issues with implants who are requesting explantation, capsule removal, and breast lift often choose fat grafting as a way to improve size and shape.
First, fat is removed using liposuction, in which a cannula (a thin, hollow tube) is inserted through small incisions, and then moved back and forth to loosen excess fat, which is suctioned out using a vacuum or a cannula-attached syringe. The harvested fat cells are then purified and processed. In the second procedure, which takes place on the same day, the fat is injected into the breast through small incisions to ensure the best volume, shape, and aesthetic results.
The procedure takes 1 to 6 hours to perform under local general anesthesia, or local anesthesia with or without sedation, depending on the preference of the patient, the surgery performed, and surgeon recommendations. Because some of the injected fat fluid is reabsorbed by the body, some people may require one to three fat-transfer procedures to achieve satisfactory results in our practice. Postoperative pain and swelling, which can be managed with prescription medication, are typical. A patient can return to work and other light activity after a two to four weeks depending on the procedure performed.
Risks of Fat-Transfer Breast Enhancement
Aside from the risks associated with any surgery, those related to fat-transfer breast enhancement include the following:
- Swelling and pain
- Calcification
- Fat embolism
- Fat necrosis
- Oil cysts
- Loss of volume
- Multiple stages
- Asymmetry
Although there was initial concern in the medical community that using fat to enhance or enlarge the breast might decrease the accuracy of breast cancer screening, recent studies indicate that it does not.