cosmeticcompare.com

1st December 2009

Body Sculpturing - The Vision

Imagine the possibility of being able to sculpture your body, to chisel off a little here and there from those unwanted areas and then to plump up the breasts and add pertness to the buttocks. Now that would be a real step forward for cosmetic surgery. This vision now has the makings of becoming a reality with autologous fat transplantation.

Up to 8 out of 10 women are unhappy with how they see their naked body in front of the mirror. Even those who exercise or train at the gym cannot alter where their body will store fat. Doing hundreds of sit-ups every day will not spot reduce fat from around the belly. We are all born different shapes and sizes and it is our genetic make up which determines where our body will store fat. There are several typical body shapes such as apple and pear. Apples typically store body fat around their waist and bust, pears typically store fat around their buttocks, hips and thighs. The point is that through natural controls such as diet and exercise, we cannot sculpture our bodies to take a little from here and add a little there.

Autologous Fat Transplantation Injections (Micro-lipoinjection)

A cosmetic surgery procedure called autologous fat transplantation or micro-lipoinjection allows fat to be removed from one area of the body and used to enhance another. So unwanted fat from the belly or thighs could be used to augment the breasts for example. This sounds fantastic, body sculpturing now appears to be possible! The concept of transplanting body fat is not new. In fact, the early attempts at breast augmentation in the early 1900s used fat injections to augment breast size. However, the effects were not particularly long lasting as the injected fat became absorbed back into the body. The result was lumpy breasts and infections and swellings were also common.

The use of autologous fat transplantation in breast enlargement cosmetic surgery has evolved since those early attempts. More recently, the technology to isolate adipose derived stem cells from fat during surgery has been developed. So fat can be removed from one area through liposuction, the stem cells can be isolated quickly and then re-injected into the patient's breast tissue to enlarge the breasts.

Advantages Over Saline or Silicone Breasts Implants

There are several advantages of autologous fat transplantation over saline or silicone breasts implants. Firstly, fat transfer can prove to be very cost effective, particularly when it is combined with another procedure, typically liposuction. There is little to no scarring as the fat is injected into the breast tissue rather than a surgical incision being needed in order to insert silicone or saline implants. Also, because the fat is taken from the patient's own body, there is no chance of an allergic reaction or complications such as capsular contracture as with synthetic breast implants.

Disadvantages

Unfortunately, one of the main issues with fat transfer breast enlargement is the longevity of the results. Factors governing this include the expertise of the surgeon, the patient's genetics, how well a blood supply establishes around the injected fat tissue and the patient's lifestyle choices. Patients who smoke are at a higher risk of excessive resorption where the fat disappears back into the body tissue at an early stage. Due to the non permanent nature of fat transfer, patients usually need a repeat treatment after 6 months. However, the fat harvested initially during liposuction can be frozen for reuse in later treatments. Additionally, only a local anaesthetic is typically needed in order to re-inject the fat into the breast tissue. Since the procedure is less invasive, the recovery time for patients is much quicker than with saline or silicone breast implant surgery.

Another issue to consider is that of size. Depending upon the level of transformation required in breast size, then synthetic breast implants may be necessary as fat transfer can only provide a limited increase in breast size.

Finally, when fat has been injected into the breast tissue it is much more difficult to detect breast cancer with mammograms.

Fat Transfer Injections Popularity

Autologous fat transplantation is now becoming more popular in both the U.S. and Europe. In addition to breast augmentation, it is used for other cosmetic surgery procedures in particular the plumping up of facial features, cheeks and chin and is a popular alternative to other wrinkle treatments. It is used to correct aging of the hands and also to correct post-traumatic and post-surgical defects in many areas of the body.

No doubt our capabilities within fat transfer will advance to increase its longevity. It is also likely that solutions to its other limitations will be found in the years ahead. This really does look a promising and exciting thread of advancement within cosmetic surgery and breast enlargement in particular.