Will A PRP Injection Increase Longevity Of Fat Transfer?

Platelet rich plasma (PRP) is the procedure where your own blood is centrifuged (spinned) and all the growth factors are collected. The process takes less than 10 minutes to collect the plasma. It is known that growth factors are very important for wound healing. Fat transfer requires optimal conditions for the fat to survive. Theoretically, adding your own growth factors to the fat will increase the changes of fat survival by improving and stimulating the surrounding soft tissue to support the “take” of the fat.


Now, there are multiple studies that have shown that it might be beneficial to add PRP to the fat. There are also other studies that have shown no difference. In other words, results are controversial.


I routinely use PRP and mix the growth factors with the fat prior to transplantation. The cost is around $300.00. If it does not hurt the patient, why not use it? There is some evidence that it might help. Typically, I have a survival rate of more than 80% of fat injected. Now, does PRP help improve the survival of the fat or is it my experience and technique?   I would not be able to answer this question unless I make a longitudinal study.  It would require me to inject fat on one butt cheek with PRP and fat and one butt cheek without PRP and compare the results over the long-run.

Platelet rich
plasma has become a very hot topic over the past couple years for a variety of
uses. It has become extremely popular in
orthopedics and has recently gained momentum in the plastic surgery/aesthetic
world. It has been used in two areas of
plastic surgery, one for facial rejuvenation and the second is for improved fat
take after large volume fat transfer.

The Brazilian
Butt Lift has become an extremely popular procedure as it improves the overall shape
of the patient while enhancing the buttock.
One of the difficult aspects of the procedure is that patient can lose
about 30% of the fat that is transferred in large volume fat transfer
procedures.

The benefit of
adding platelet rich plasma to fat transfer procedures is to increase the overall
fat that survives and improve the final result.
This is especially important in thin patients that might have a limited
amount of fat for the augmentation.

There are still
more studies to be done but there is some evidence that the platelet rich
plasma does increase that fat the stays for the augmentation. When 1000cc are being transferred an increase
in 10 – 15% of fat makes a significant difference.

I hope this
helps answer your question, please discuss this with your board certified
plastic surgeon.

Hi there-

Unfortunately, with so many doctors competing for patients nowadays, some doctors feel the need to resort to gimmicks in order to attract patients...

While there is as of yet absolutely no proof that addition of PRP will improve your outcome or the graft take, it will definitely increase your costs.

Considering the fact that in the hands of a good BBL surgeon the outcomes are excellent without PRP, this makes no sense to me.