Breast Augmentation with Your Own Fat – Redux!
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You read it here first!
Back in July, 2009, readers of the California Breast Augmentation Institute Blog learned how your own fat can be used to enhance your bust line. (Read our post about natural breast augmentation.)
Now, plastic surgeons at the annual American Society of Plastic Surgery meeting in Seattle have released a study showing that fat — taken by liposuction — is a viable alternative to breast implants.
The study is noteworthy because breast augmentation saw 307,000 procedures in 2008; it was the leading plastic surgery performed in ‘08, the most recent year for which statistics exist.
However, breast implants present rare — but possible — risks including:
- Breakage and leaking
- Infections
- Attracting painful scar tissue
- Causing a replacement operation
The basic concern about fat transplantation to the breast was that the fat could die, form calcium cysts and block mammograms.
Other cosmetic plastic surgeons feared the fat might be reabsorbed by the body.
Plastic surgeon Roger K. Khouri, M.D. and colleagues studied 50 women, aged 17 to 63 for five years; all had breast enhancement with almost nine ounces of fat taken from each thigh.
Results included:
- Fat transfer to the breast did not obscure mammography
- Fat survival averaged 85 percent
- Patients said they were pleased with the natural breast feel
- The average increase was one bra cup size
New techniques included having patients wear a bra-like tissue expander device 10 hours daily before and after plastic surgery to make room for the transferred fat.
The researchers used a tiny liposuction tube only 2.7 mm (about 1/16th of an inch) wide.
The fat was cleaned by sedimentation and re-injected into each breast through 10 to 14
needle puncture sites in three-dimensions.
Many fat transfer experts have found that injecting a pool of fat does not work because such a large glob does not easily find a blood supply. However, tiny pearls of fat do if they are spread out.
The researchers also took a series of MRIs and mammograms before and after surgery.
The operation required an average one and one-half hours while the patients returned to their normal activities within three to four days.
admin @ October 29, 2009