How Long is the Process of Fat Grafting to Breasts?

As pointed out by several experts in previous posts the Fat Transfer procedure for Breast enlargement of Breast Augmentation takes 2-3 hours.

Some surgeons take longer and justify their time by very careful Fat Transfer injection in small amounts and claim superior results as a result of their technique as is done by Dr Coleman in New York.

Dr's Khouri and Del Vecchio have recently made strides in reducing the time required.

The key is to find an expert who is used to doing Fat Transfer to the Breast, choosing a Plastic Surgeon you are comfortable with and trusting the doctor to use the best technique to achieve your result. Let the doctor worry about the time involved.

There are 3 parts to fat transfer, and the length of time can vary a lot depending on the techniques used.

Part 1)  liposuction of the donor sites.  If small cannulas or syringe liposuction is used - it takes longer.

Part 2) processing the fat.  Centrifuging the fat in small volumes takes longer.

Part 3) injecting the processed fat into the new area.  Using micro-injection techniques takes longer.

Surgeons debate which technique is better.  Some experts, like Dr. Coleman of NYC, feel that the longer way at each step gives the best results.

Most surgeons report that fat grafting to the breast takes between 3-6 hours, depending on the exact methods used.  Dr. DelVecchio of Boston, and Dr. Khouri of Tampa have been making important contributions in trying to reduce the procedure time, but still get good results.

Fat Grafting to the breast can be routinely performed by a single surgeon in under two hours.  This is a fact.  See the link below for our  paper published in June, 2011 Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.  The average volume of breast increase long term was 250cc, or a doubling of breast size.  Patients who have results at 4-6 months have kept their results 4-5 years now.  Fat grafting to the breast can result in mammographic abnormalities , however, these are readily distinguishable from cancer.  The statement "most of the fat goes away"  is simply not true.  I would encourage any of our colleagues who inform patients that fat grafting does not work or is not safe to read the exciting work that is comng out in our specialty's journals.    Although I perform many breast augmentations, I believe implants have their own set of problems.  Where this will settle out is that there will be a subset of women who will prefer natural fat for minor augmentation, and there will always be a need for implant augmentations.  The two are not interchangable, have different aesthetic results, and will appeal to different patient groups.

 

Dr Daniel Del Vecchio, Boston

bostonbreastcenter.com