BREAST FAT TRANSFER
Breast fat transfer is a method of augmenting and reshaping the breasts using your own body fat, rather than using silicone implants.
Your Own Body Fat
Silicone Implants
In contrast to using silicone implants, it is almost impossible to tell that the breasts have been enhanced with a fat transfer.
Fat transfer to the breast is also the least invasive method of breast enlargement and it doesn’t involve inserting any foreign object into the body.
Improvements in liposuction and lipo-filling in recent years mean higher rates of fat survival and more predictable results.
Advantages of a Breast Fat Transfer
Some of the advantages of fat transfer breast augmentation and reshaping include:
- Your breasts may look and feel more natural than had you used implants. It is generally harder to detect the transfer of fat to the breast than to detect silicone implants.
- Little if any scarring, versus silicone implants which require incisions and result in fine scars, typically in the breast crease.
- No foreign objects in your body, reducing the risk of contamination, infection and capsular contraction.
- Lower overall complication rate.
- A liposuction (to collect the fat) is required, which allows you to remove unwanted stubborn fat from areas of your body, commonly the buttocks, but also the abdomen, flanks and thighs.
- Faster recovery time.
Disadvantages of a Breast Fat Transfer
There are a few downsides to breast fat transfer:
- The cost of the procedure vs implants:
- 1 fat transfer to breast procedure: £5,800.
- 2 procedures, spaced 6 months apart (for additional volume) £10,200.
- 3 procedures, spaced 6 months apart: £14,800.
- Breast fat transfer will always cost more to achieve the same degree of augmentation, then breast implants.
- The overall gain in volume is likely to be less than can be achieved with implants, and certainly less volume for the same amount of money vs implants.
- Not all of the fat transferred to the breasts will survive. Any fat that does not survive can result in granulomatous reactions or form fatty cysts (lumpiness).
- Fat must survive the journey from the donor site (belly, thighs, rear) to the recipient site. Advanced methods of fat graft preparation, including the use of Puregraft, and reinjection with specialist techniques will improve the rate of fat survival.
Results Typical of Three Fat Transfer Procedures *
* Individual results may vary from person to person.
As a rough guide, you can realistically expect up to 1 cup size increase in volume for each fat transfer procedure, assuming a reasonable rate of fat survival. An estimate of around 80 – 100 ml of fat, per breast.
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Complications – Fat Transfer Breast Augmentation
Breast fat transfers generally have a lower risk of complications than silicone implants.
It is essential to see a highly skilled surgeon who has experience in this procedure, to maximise fat survival and minimise the chance of unlikely complications including:
- Infection (a risk in all surgery)
- Cysts, microcalcification (the forming of small hard lumps)
- The death of some of the fat cells
- The possibility that some of the transferred fat cells will leave the breast area.
Should complications occur, they are usually minor and able to be fixed by the surgeon.
Injecting too much fat in one procedure increases the risk of lumps of fat forming, and also decreases the overall fat survival rate and lowers the predictability of the result.
Your surgeon will know how much fat can be injected each session for the best result possible.
As an indication of price, you first fat transfer procedure will cost around £5,800, and you may need 2 or 3 procedures in some cases, depending on the results sought. Each procedure increases the volume of the breasts.
Ensuring a Successful Breast Fat Transfer
Fat transfer to the breasts is a technically demanding procedure due to the time required to ensure optimum fat survival. The method of harvesting the fat cells, purifying them, and reinjecting the fat will determine the percentage of fat cells that survive the process.
1. Purifying the Fat Cells (the Cleaning Process)
Traditional methods of purification including the use of centrifugation can destroy a large number of fat cells even before they are re-injected into the breasts. Technologies including Puregraft filtration preserve more of the donor fat during the filtration process.
2. Re-injecting the Fat Cells
To ensure re-injected fat establishes a supply of blood it is important that the surgeon takes their time to spread the fat in thin layers covering large regions of the breasts. Low fat survival rates and complications can occur when too much fat is injected in one session.
Grafting fat cells is a tedious and time-consuming process.
Improving the Look of Breast Implants and Breast Reconstruction
Breast fat transfer can also be used to fine-tune the outcome of breast reconstruction after lumpectomy or mastectomy.
The aesthetic results of breast implant augmentation can also be improved by adding fat.
For example, fat can be added to disguise the edges of silicone or saline implants, or to mask the rippling effect more common with saline breast implants.
Frequently Asked Questions
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About the author
Clinic Director Dr Gary Horn
Dr Gary Horn is the owner and director of Harley Breast and is responsible for all website content.
Dr Horn is a registered Plastic Surgeon in the UK (GMC 4267803) and Belgium.
Dr Gary Horn is a highly acclaimed Consultant Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon with over 25 years of experience in breast augmentation and reshaping using breast implants (over 2,000 surgeries performed) and fat transfer to the breast. Dr Horn is a registered Plastic Surgeon in the UK (GMC 4267803) and Belgium.
SPECIALITIES: General Plastic Surgery, Cosmetic Plastic Surgery
LANGUAGES: English, French
GENERAL MEDICAL COUNCIL NUMBER: 4267803
MEDICAL PROCEDURES:
Dr Horn is qualified to perform a large range of procedures, including:
Breast augmentation with cohesive silicone gel implants, fat transfer to the breasts, Breast Lift, Mastopexy.