Grafting fat into your breasts is a very natural thing to do. Your breasts will look natural, they will feel like you were born with them, they will move like your breasts always have. The end result is all you. There are no foreign bodies, no foreign materials and no implants.
Fat in Breasts
The amount of fat you have in your breasts is different for every woman. Vandeweyer and Hertens dissected 21 breasts obtained from mastectomy patients. Fat volume ranged from 7% to 56%. Age and body mass index made no difference. What you have is what you were born to have. We will add fat to your breasts.
Breast Feeding
Fat is used to make milk for babies. During pregnancy the glands grow and your bodies stores more fat in the breasts ready to make milk. After breast feeding you will have less fat in your breasts. The breast skin may have stretched. Your breasts may sag. We will put that fat back!
How long will grafted fat last in Breasts?
Fat grafted into your breasts behaves like fat any where else in your body. Grafted fat is permanent. The fat cells get bigger when you gain weight and smaller when you lose weight. For this reason it is important not to graft too much fat when you are slim. As you gain weight your breasts will get larger and may be too big! We can add more at a later date if you want them even bigger.
When the fat is first injected your breasts will be swollen and very large. As the fluid is reabsorbed they will get smaller. Not all the fat grafted will survive. Some people hold fat better than others. Smokers do not have as good blood supply everywhere in their bodies. The breasts are no exception and this will reduce the fat you can hold.
How big can I make my Breasts?
We take your fat away from its blood supply and inject it into your breasts. That fat then needs to grow new connections to tap into your existing capillaries. If you have a small network of capillaries then you can only attach a small number of fat cells. Trying to go too big too soon simply means you will not be able to attach all the graft and some will die. This is called fat necrosis. Cysts filled with oil will form and can cause pain. These may need to be drained or cut out.
As a rule of thumb you can add as much fat as you already have. Once that graft has taken your network of capillaries will be greater and you can have a larger graft. The photo on the left had a tubular breast shape. I changed this shape and made them larger. These were a small B cup. I injected them four times to result in a full DD cup size.
When you smoke the blood vessels contract (Tighten up) and become inflamed. Inflamed blood vessels don’t work as well and will not support as much grafted fat. Fat necrosis is more likely even if we reduce the size of the graft.
PRP and Stem Cells.
We can improve the graft survival rate by adding growth factors obtained from your blood. For this reason we routinely add PRP . If you have excess fat we can separate the Stromal Vascular Fraction (SVF) which contains stem cells and more growth factors and cytokines and add this to the mix. These stem cells will encourage the growth of new fat cells over and above those we have transplanted. This is a more complicated and expensive process and not something that we do routinely.
Is Fat Grafting into Breasts Safe?
This is a surgical operation so all the risks of surgery are possible. The biggest risks for surgery are:
- Infection,
- Blood loss,
- DVT,
- Post op shock,
- Post Op Nausea and Vomiting,
- Reactions to anesthesia.
This is minor surgery and the risks are minor. Liposuction will be performed under local anesthesia with some sedation. This makes the procedure even safer.
There are some risks that relate to Fat Transfer. These risks are small if the surgeon uses correct procedures and has significant experience.
Some risks are peculiar to the breasts.
Fat necrosis is death of grafted fat cells with the formation of fat cysts in the breast. This is more likely after 40yrs of age. I will not perform Fat Transfer to the breasts if you are over 40yrs of age. This is also more common in smokers.
What are the benefits of Breast Fat Grafting?
The biggest benefit is that you will have breasts that are all you. They will be natural. Your breasts will move like normal breasts and never have an ‘implant look’. They will feel totally normal. Just like breasts should feel. No one will ever feel an implant. They will always look natural. Everyone will think you were born with them.
No implant scars! We inject the grafts using very fine cannulas. We will make a few pinprick scars hidden in creases or on the edge of the areola. No one will know.
You will be slimmer in the donor area. We will remove fat from some area that you find annoying.
You avoid all the complications of implant surgery.
Fat Grafts after Breast Implants.
Grafting fat will improve some of the complications of breast implant surgery.
Asymmetry Corrected with Fat Graft
The lady in the picture below had a smaller right breast. We gave her 425XH submuscular implants but the asymmetry was still obvious. Fat Grafting corrected this problem. We added a little fat to the upper inner edge of the left breast to blend that margin.
Demarcation contours showing the edge of the implants. As the prosthesis is inserted the skin and fat will be spread out over the implant. This thins the tissue and may reveal the implant edge. Adding a layer of fat will soften the contours and the implant edge will disappear. This lady was traumatized by shop assistants commenting on her implants when she tried on a blouse. Fat transfers gave her peace of mind.
Fat grafts will soften capsular contractions. Capsular contraction occurs when the capsule around the implant becomes inflamed and keeps on growing. This thickened scar tissue then contracts and tightens around the implant producing pain and looking ugly. Fat transfer will soften the scar tissue. It is best to do this in the early stages of capsular contraction.
Rippling is obvious when the layer of fat between the skin and the implant is too thin. Grafting will increase the fat pad layer masking the rippling and enlarging the breasts.
Surgical scars are inevitable with implant surgery. Some patients make very thick scars. (Over reactive or exuberant scars). This is not your fault it is just how your body reacts. These can be thick enough to be labeled Hypertrophic. Keloid Scars are a special case. These are usually genetic and need special treatment. Scarring will often soften and reduce thickness with fat transfer.
Combining Implants with Fat Grafts
If you only have a small amount of fat we can graft whatever you have and once it has settled (Three months) we can add a small implant. This has several advantages. A smaller implant will have fewer complications short and long term. Increasing the fat layer will give a more natural appearance and movement. They will also last longer.
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