Cosmetic Breast Augmentation with Fat Grafting

Abstract

For fat grafting to emerge as a viable technique for breast augmentation, it must be safe for patients, yield reproducible results that satisfy aesthetic goals, and be reliably performed in 2 h or less. Because of unknown potential effects of fat transplantation into the breast, such a procedure warrants careful study. In January 2009, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons revised their position on fat grafting to the breasts, and cautioned: “results of fat transfer remain dependent on a surgeon’s technique and expertise” [1]. The use of fat grafting to the breast has demonstrated photographic evidence of volume maintenance [2]; however, there are currently no published data to evaluate this on an objective quantitative basis. Recently, the use of pre-expansion of the breast recipient site prior to grafting has been reported to yield objective, quantitative long-term volume maintenance in both reconstruction and breast augmentation using MRI [3, 4]. In addition, the use of stem cell-enriched fat grafting or fat grafting enriched with cell protectants has been suggested to be beneficial to fat graft survival.