Risk of Pulmonary Embolism During Fat Transfer?

There are risks with every procedure and the removal of fat for fat injections does carry with it some risks, but the risk of a pulmonary embolus related to the procedure is very low if it is a small procedure and peformed as a sole treatment. Risks increase when multiple procedures are done together and there is a lot of fat removal, which is not the case normally with fat injections.

With large volume fat transfers in areas with large vessels such as the buttocks, there is a risk of pulmonary fat embolism. In the face, there has never been a report of a PE with fat transfer and it although I never say never, I would say the risk is extremely small and not quantifiable.

There are 2 types of embolism that you may be thinking about.

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blood clot that typically forms in the legs and can travel to your lungs where it may cause serious problems including death. This is a risk with almost any major surgical procedure. The risk of PE depends on the length of surgery, your age, your overall health and many other risk factors (Google: Caprini risk factors). If the fat grafting procedure involves only small volumes of fat and is done using a local anesthetic, then the risk for PE is almost zero.

Fat embolism (FE) if much less common and has been seen after significant bone fractures, liposuction, and rarely after fat grafting. We don't have enough information to know all the risk factors and overall statistics. However, based on available information, the risk is very low (less than 1 in 1000) but at least one death that followed facial fat grafts was linked to fat embolism.