Breast Fat Transfer
Breast fat transfer (also known as lipomodelling or lipoaugmentation) uses a patient's own fat to enhance breast shape or volume. It is a natural, tissue-based alternative to implants. The change is generally subtler and less predictable, but there is no implant-related maintenance.
About breast fat transfer
How it compares with implants
Implants give a more predictable change in volume but are a long-term commitment that may need maintenance surgery and carry their own implant-related issues. Fat transfer uses your own tissue and avoids those implant issues, but the amount of transferred fat that survives, known as the 'take', is less predictable.
Compared with breast implants, breast fat transfer produces a subtler and more limited increase in volume because only a relatively small amount of fat can be transferred at each stage. As a broad guide, an increase of approximately one to one-and-a-half cup sizes may be realistic for a suitable patient, although cup sizing varies and the result depends on the available donor fat and how much of the transferred fat survives. More than one treatment stage may be needed to achieve the desired result.
Fat is harvested and transferred through several very small incisions, generally only a few millimetres long, both at the donor sites and on the breast. These incisions are considerably smaller than the incision required to insert a breast implant.
Scope
Miss Hunter mainly performs fat transfer to the breast, for both breast enhancement and reconstruction. She does not routinely offer fat transfer to other areas of the body. Fat is collected by liposuction from carefully selected donor sites before being prepared and transferred to the breast.
In practice, fat is taken from a chosen donor area through small incisions using liposuction. It is then prepared so that the healthy fat is retained, and that fat is reintroduced into the breast in small amounts to build shape and volume gradually. Each fat droplet has to be surrounded by existing healthy breast tissue so that it can take up its own blood supply, which limits the amount that can be transferred in one session.
Procedure and recovery
Breast fat transfer is performed under general anaesthetic as a day-case procedure and typically takes around two and a half hours. Drains are not routinely required.
A supportive bra and compression garments over the donor sites should be worn day and night for six weeks. Patients are encouraged to walk straight away. Heavy lifting, driving and the gym should be avoided until bruising has subsided, which can take up to six weeks.
What to consider
Possible risks include infection, fat necrosis, the development of oil cysts or calcification, variable fat survival, asymmetry, donor-site contour irregularity and the possibility of repeat procedures.
Fat transfer can produce benign changes within the breast, such as fat necrosis, oil cysts or calcification, which may be visible on future breast imaging. You should tell the clinician or imaging team that you have previously had breast fat transfer.
Routine breast screening and other imaging can still proceed as planned. These changes have a different appearance from breast cancer and can usually be distinguished by experienced breast-imaging clinicians, although further imaging or assessment may occasionally be recommended.