I have consulted with 3 doctors on breast fat transfer. What could vary the amount of cc's lipo from the flanks, hips, and abs?

The limitations with fat transfer to the breast are not only the available fat to transfer from your abdomen and hips but the ability to place the fat in tissue with a good blood supply.  If too much fat is grafted, the fat will not be close to tissue with good blood supply and it will die, resulting in cysts or necrosis.  Typical amounts of fat grafted are in the range of 250-300 cc per breast per session.  I would be cautious in expecting a larger augmentation than this in one setting. 

These are great questions and you should get them answered by your surgeon before proceeding.There are a wide range of volumes that various breasts can accept with fat grafting. Breast anatomy and starting size are key.  Surgeon experience will dictate what is right for you.Some of my patients may want a second-stage fat grafting procedure to give them greater breast size than can be accomplished in just one operation.  Therefore, I am careful to only perform liposuction in areas that are needed to get the fat for the first grafting procedure and then save other areas for future procedures.I perform total breast reconstruction after mastectomy which requires multiple fat grafting sessions.  This concept of "fat rationing" is especially important in breast reconstruction patients.Best wishes.

The one truth with fat transfer is that you can't inject more fat than what is available to safely harvest as a graft!  Thus, people that don't have a lot of fat on their bodies to begin with won't have a large volume available for grafting or transfer.  When we harvest fat for transfer, we are essentially doing a liposuction procedure on the donor area.  Although our first intent may not be to improve the contour of the donor site, I think we would all agree that at the least we certainly don't want to make the appearance of the donor site worse.   Thus, we can only take enough fat that is available to remove without creating deformities.  Next, the fat has to be processed for transfer, and although there are many ways to do this, they all result in some decrease in the volume of the total amount of aspirate, or tissue and fluid removed with the liposuction, that can be used for transfer.  None of these amounts that I have described can be determined precisely before surgery, so to say that you were "quoted" these amounts is a bit misleading.  They may have been estimates, but you shouldn't rely on them as exact amounts of expected fat transfer volume.  Furthermore, there is always some loss of volume of the graft after fat transfer, sometimes as high as 40 - 50 % of the volume depending upon the methods of fat preparation and injection, and thus, even though you might have 1000 cc injected at the time of surgery, it is quite likely that you will not wind up with all of that volume in the long run.  Again, how much of the fat graft survives long term is impossible to determine accurately before, or even during, surgery.  Although I haven't seen pictures of you, I suspect that at 5 feet tall and 107 pounds, while you may feel that you have plenty of fat in your flanks and "pooch," your volumes aren't really that high.  I might be wrong, but I seriously doubt that 1500 cc of fat is available for viable grafting on a lady your size.  Additionally, all of this discussion so far has ignored the issue of how much fat is advisable to inject into a single area at a single session.  Transferred fat needs a robust blood supply to survive long term, and the more fat you inject into the same area, the more you risk that larger amounts of your injected fat will wind up without blood supply and will die. Again, I do a fair amount of this type of surgery, and I would rarely expect to get 1500 cc into the breasts of a lady your size, even if I had it available to me at harvest.My best advice is to select a board certified plastic surgeon with experience in fat transfer to the breast who can demonstrate good results and rational plans without taking unnecessary risks and pushing limits needlessly.  You should be able to get unbiased advice from such a surgeon, and in the end, if you are not a good candidate for the procedure, he or she should be up front with you and offer other options.  If you are a candidate, you should be given realistic expectations with no promises of success - as always, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is!  Good luck.

Thank you for the question.To best help you, a physical
examination or picture evaluation is required in order to determine
which procedures and techniques will be best for your case.Dr. Campos

It completely depends on what they were specifically talking to you about.  It may be that one said take out and put back 500cc; the other may have been suggesting take out a certain amount or as much as you have and inject a portion back into the breast.  It's hard for anyone online to tell you why the recommendations were different since we were not in your consultations with you.  You may be able to reach out to the surgeons and ask them why the variation?  I typically will estimate to patients how much I think they need to get the augmentation they desire (& account for approx 40-50% of fat dissolving so needing to overcorrect) and how much fat I think I can remove.  Some surgeons will offer straight removal of the fat they need to transfer, while others will recommend liposuction to improve the contour of the donor site (for example, abdomen) and then inject what can be injected safely.  The volume preoperatively can only be estimated but I agree those numbers are widely varied.  I think you would be hard pressed to get 1000-1500cc in the breast though, especially without using BRAVA first.  My best suggestion would be to do your research about your surgeons--make sure they are board certified plastic surgeons (by the American Board of Plastic Surgery) first and whether they have experience with fat grafting to the breast. Then consider a 2nd consult to determine which surgeon you feel most comfortable with and try to narrow down the volume estimate and specifically what that number means. Good luck!

The total fat removed depends on the tissue available in the donor area as dents and irregularity should be avoided. The amount that can be transferred into the breast will depend on how well it can be distributed into the breast as otherwise the fat will be lost. There is no standard for fat transfer and results are user dependent so ask questions carefully.

In liposuction we can only estimate the amount of aspirate to be taken out, aspirate is the total fat and fluid taken during liposuction. What is important is to take enough and leave no dents, waviness, and cannula marks and reshape the area as good as possible. Charges do not change, liposuction of the flanks is one charge, for the surgeon, anesthesia, and facility whether it is 500 cc 0r 1500 cc. The time to aspirate 1500 cc is a little more than the time for 500 cc. What is important is the person doing the liposuction. Board Certified  Plastic Surgeon (American Board of Plastic Surgery).