Fat Transfer to Breasts - My doctor says they can get me up 2 cup sizes. I am about 5'4 107 lbs and 22 years old.

It is so intuitively appealing... natural tissue injected into the breasts, all natural breast tissue that survives. What could be better?
Here's the rub.
Fat injection consists of mainly dead cells, with a disputed amount of living cells. Our research showed 20-25% alive, other studies have shown as low as 3% if you look at the ability of the cells to "breathe" (metabolize).
Those dead cells, when injected into the breasts, either are dissolved away by the body's white blood cells, or form chronic inflammatory reactions and are walled off (granulomatous reactions) or form fatty cysts. Lumpiness can also occur with the above problems as well.
It is the walling off process that causes the most worry. Calcium formation is common in granulomatous reactions. Calcium is what clues off mammographers to the presence of cancer. So will there be false positive mammograms for cancer in patients who have this technique? We'll have to wait and see.
In five years' time, we will have our answers. Until then, patients receiving this technique will take a certain risk. We won't be using this technique in our practice until more data are available.
UAL, by the way, (and also the laser) melts and destroys fat cells with ultrasound waves (or laser heat). This technique would guarantee only dead cells are introduced.

This is a good question. Typically, you can go up one size with a fat transfer, and you may need multiple surgeries to achieve that goal. Presumably, you can have even more surgeries of fat transfer to go bigger (cannot be done in one session), however given your height and weight, you may not have enough fat elsewhere on your body to harvest to inject into your breasts.

Hello,

Fat grafting or fat transfer to the breasts is an effective and safe alternative to implant breast augmentation in suitable candidates. Generally speaking, smaller framed individuals can expect less gain in breast size as their fat stores are limited (*also excessive fat tansferred into a tight skin envelope will not survive). Staged fat grafting as opposed to a single session can help result in more realistic and predictable volume enhancement in most cases where two cup sizes are desired.
As you noted, an expert in liposuction would better guide you during an examination as to your suitability for body contouring so as to avoid risks in harvesting the fat. Best candidates are those with good skin elasticity and who desire reshaping of other areas of the body (a win-win!). Otherwise you risk distortion for the sake of obtaining fat alone.

Warm regards,
Dr. Pedy Ganchi
Village Plastic Surgery

At your weight it will be very difficult to get much fat for transfer. I don’t think it’s worth the risk of dents. Also the results in the breast are pretty lousy. Check out cases online and see if you think those results are worth getting dents on the donut areas.

You cannot increase the breast size more than a cup size. You do not have a lot of fat, UAL is ultrasonic harvesting and will kill all the fat cells. I would be more concerned about the expectations in volume and projection for your breasts than the results of the liposuction. Liposuction is a very safe procedure with low complication rates.  However, I think that 2 whole cup sizes of increase as a long term result for a single treatment with fat transfer to the breasts is not realistic. For the best results you should consult with a board certified plastic surgeon. 

The key to the operating is survival of the fat graft long term.  Ultrasound will destroy the fat cells and should not be used if the fat is going to be transferred.

Fat transfer breast augmentation is an effective procedure, and its a great option for implant free breast augmentation. In my experience 2 cup sizes is more than you should expect in a single transfer. Please feel free to visit our website to see before and afters of various patients. I think you will find the information and photos helpful. 

This is a great procedure for a subtle natural breast augmentation. Typical cup size increase is 1/2 to 1 full cup. You can increase 2 cups but typically you require at least 2 sessions. I don't recommend UAL since this injures the fat cells. Very careful meticulous liposuction technique with tons of experience is required to achieve a smooth result regarding the donor regions. 

You will need more then one surgery to go up 2 cup sizes with fat grafting. I would not recommend UAL as it destroys the cells that you want to live for a successful augmentation. You need gentle harvesting techniques to ensure optimal survival.

Breast lipoaugmentation even in the most experienced hands rarely produces more than a one cup size improvement.  Typically multiple fat transfer sessions are required to achieve more than one cup size increase in volume.  Some of the important factors that determine what chance you have for achieving the cup size increase are:1) How much breast tissue you have to begin with (the more the better)2) How tight or loose your breast skin envelope is (the tighter the breast skin, the less we will be able to transfer).  Use of the BRAVA breast tissue expansion system may improve these first 2 requirements, but it will add more costs and time needed overall to do the procedure so it's best to just have some decent breast tissue to begin with.3) How much fat you have in other parts of your body to give.  Being 5'4" and 107lbs, it will be challenging to find enough fat on your body to do the procedure.  If you don't have the fat, you are not going to get very far.4) How much experience your surgeon has and how good his technique and patient selection is.  Using UAL to harvest the fat for transfer is unwise as the ultrasound will destroy the fat cells during the harvesting process so all you will be transferring is dead fat cells.  This will cause a lot of lumpiness, nodularity and calcifications as well as eventual loss of volume.  This would be a very curious and illogical way to do this procedure.  I definitely recommend you consult with a board certified plastic surgeon who has a lot of experience doing fat transfers to the breasts.  This is not something you want to mess around with.  Best wishes. 

Fat transfer to the face or body can be an amazing procedure; there is no better 2 for 1 deal in plastic surgery!  However, there are always limitations.  Promising 2 cup sizes seems to be out of the realm of all the experts here, myself included.  Increasing one full cup size in a relatively thin frame such as yours would be consider a very good result.   Trying to hard to get more fat can lead to (donor area) problems.   If you would not be satisfied with one full cup increase, you should either consider implants or no procedure at all.  I would definitely want to see pictures of other patients (and speak with them to make sure pictures do not reflect immediate postop swelling) that this doctor has increased by two cup sizes before proceeding and remember to always use a BCPS!