I have fat atrophy caused by 80mg of Kenalog steroid shot. Would Renuva or a fat graft help? (photos)

Steroid induced fat atrophy comes from steroid injections they were done incorrectly. The injection should’ve been done into the muscle but most likely instead was injected into the fat. this is probably much more common than what people both in the public and medical field believe.

The great majority of people having steroid injections do not develop fat atrophy so the importance of confirming intramuscular injection is often not reinforced enough.

Your pictures are hard to interpret because you don’t show both sides or are wearing clothing or it looks like you’re tilting your body in one direction.

Regardless the first step is to give us sufficient time to see how much of the fat atrophy will reverse on its own.

I personally would not intervene within the first year and a half.

The best treatment option is going to be fat transfer. For severe cases this may require multiple rounds of fat transfer done with a minimum of six months in between.

I would not try Renuva for this.

The amount of improvement from a single round a fat transfer is dependent on how much soft tissue is currently present to serve as host tissue to support the graft.

For example if the thickness of subcutaneous fat in the area needing most projection is 1/2 inch in the area needs 1.5” for ideal projection patients should expect needing 3 to 4 rounds of fat transfer. If the area has 1 inch of subcutaneous fat and needs to be 1 1/2 inches for ideal projection a single round a fat transfer should be sufficient.

The more projection is needed in combination with smaller amounts of host tissue Will require more rounds a fat transfer. Simply over grafting leads to a higher percentage of fat graft failure with excessive development of fat necrosis.

I suggest having multiple consultations with local board-certified plastic surgeons. I recommend you and all patients do this by having in person consultations.

Best, Mats Hagstrom MD