Is it safe to inject animal collagen into the buttocks and hips?

Question

Hi to any doctors please could you advise me , there is a woman in Abu Dhabi and Dubai claiming to be injecting animal collagen into the buttocks and hips. I have spoken with a girl on Instagram who has sent many many of people over the last 6 years to her and she’s had it done her self and has a big bum now and is over the moon , and all others apparently have been very happy . This product dissolves after a couple of years so it’s not a permanent silicone or anything like that you have to

Geuris Cruz Quiroz, MD · Answer

Thank you for your question dear @renigade1. 
Any product you inject into your body is a strange product and nobody know how your body will react. I never recommend any type of product because all of them end up being biopolymers and if you spoke with somebody on social media means is not certified, do not put your life in risk because somebody says is good and will dissolves after a couple of years, again you do not how your body will reacts. Your safety is always first!  Hope this helps!

Ryan A. Stanton, MD · Answer

Don’t believe the hype!

I have unfortunately had many patients come to me after having their high hopes for buttock/hip augmentation crushed by measly Sculptra results or other temporary human-based "fillers" such as Radiesse, Renuva and Juvederm, etc. Historically, animal based fillers have a much shorter life span. Other than the fact that these are not FDA approved for buttock/hip injections, here are some critical points of awareness: 1) they all are temporary, lasting 1.5 - 2 years at very most, 2) if done correctly dermal fillers like Sculptra or Renuva are cost prohibitive for 99% of potential buttock/hip augmentation patients. In order to create a significant/noticeable result with a dermal filler, at least 200 mls of active product (not just “total ccs of fluid injected” of which contains mostly saline not Sculptra) must be injected into each buttock cheek for a total of 400 mls. At $1000 per ml, this equates to a minimum price of $400,000.00. Thus if your doctor is recommending to put in ONLY 20 or 40 mls of these fillers you will pay $20,000-$40,000 and get an insignificant miniscule result! (eg. like a “drop in the ocean” effect), 3) Do not let anybody tell you that the product is so special that it's going to magically grow over the following months or years...this just does not happen to any noticeable degree!, 4) dermal fillers, when injected in large quantities, have a relatively high infection rate, guaranteed tendency to migrate away from the original area they were injected into, and almost always stimulate a lot of inflammation with a subsequent and disastrous amount of scar tissue/hardening, and 5) the one very serious complication that can rarely ( less than 1%) happen is "embolism" in which some of the filler gets into the blood stream and travels up into the lungs, heart, and/or brain causing serious problems, including death.

The only relatively safe, reliable, and permanent option for buttock and hip dip augmentation is with implants.

Hope this all helps you make a better informed decision and saves you a lot of your otherwise hard earned money.

Mats Hagstrom, MD (license on probation) · Answer

Appropriate medical care is best done locally by sufficiently trained and experienced doctors.
With the advent of modern fillers very few people in the aesthetic industry use collagen. Once upon a Time in the 1990s, it was all that was available. The products were inferior, did not last long and had complications.
What you are describing sounds like it potentially may be quackery and certainly not some thing. Done by the standards of modern western medicine.
I suggest consulting with local board-certified plastic surgeons in your community to get a good understanding of treatment options.
People have died, at the hands of Quack providers, injecting foreign substances. Best,
Mats Hagstrom, MD

Is it safe to inject animal collagen into the buttocks and hips?

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Is it safe to inject animal collagen into the buttocks and hips?

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