Breast Augmentation - Fat Grafting
Though practiced in Europe for a number of years, fat grafting to the breasts for augmentation purposes has been uncommon in the United States. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons recently formed a task force to determine the safety of fat grafting for breast augmentation purposes. Their conclusions are that more research is needed but "no reports suggest an increased risk of malignancy" and that "fat grafts may not interfere with radiologic imaging in detecting breast cancer."
The practice of fat transfer for volume correction has been practiced for some time. Fat has been used for buttock augmentation and to improve scarring or to smooth out depressions from trauma or surgery. The concern about using fat in the breasts has been from the calcifications fat grafting leaves behind. Mammograms detect cancer by noting the calcifications in the x-rayed breast tissue. It has become increasingly clear, however, that the calcifications from cancer and the calcifications from fat transfer appear very different.
Fat is colllected by liposuction before re-injecting it into the target tissue. Thus another benifit of fat grafting is contour improvement in the donor area. Becase fat is a living substance, it must establish a new blood supply when it is injected. Before this happens, typically 30 to 50% is re-absorbed by the body. Therefore fat grafting to the breasts is slightly less predictable than implant placement.
The surgery itself is usually performed with the patients sedated or asleep. It will likely take two to three hours to perform. The majority of the swelling is gone in two weeks, but changes continue up to two months. Small differences from breast to breast exist before surgery and will exist after surgery as well. However, the improved shape of the breasts as well as the donor site makes fat grafting patients some of our happiest patients.
