Everyone knows about the implant for increasing the breast volume. But last 6 to 7 years there is one more procedure parallelly developed to restore breast volume. This is called the breast fat transfer or breast fat fill.

What is done in breast fat transfer?

Fat is aspirated from other parts of the body, may be the tummy or thighs, and using a method called expansion vibration lipo-filling abbreviated as EVL technique the aspirated fat is injected. Basically we make a small nick in the armpit region and put the vibration machine and try to create a space. This is done to expand that area and so called as expansion vibration.

In expansion vibration lipo-filling method we fill the breast in various layers.

  • Over the muscle
  • Inside the breast tissue
  • Under the areolar

We can put 400cc to 700cc of fat according to the volume, according to the skin laxity. Fat goes in the closed system so that there is no contamination at all. There is very less incidence of infection as when we do a closed system lipo-filling.

What is the concept of breast fat transfer?

There are some restrictions for this method. We cannot over stretch the skin. When we inject the fat cells, it takes the blood supply from the surrounding tissues and tries to survive. If you over stretch , even the blood vessels are compressed and the blood supply to the fat cells are compromised. That’s the reason we cannot over fill. Another problem is, like an implant fat wouldn’t stay there lifelong. Fat transfer will make you happy if you expect 1 cup size increase from your existing breast volume. But if you expect the implant kind of a result, definitely you might need two or three sittings of breast fat transfer to get good result like an implant.

So what are the complications you see in breast fat transfer?

Commonest complication what we see in breast fat fill patient is. Two to three fat cells will get destroyed and forms a cover like thing which is called a fat cyst. Usually fat cyst in most of the patients is asymptomatic and we normally do not treat it. If it gives pain or discomfort, sometimes we need to do an ultrasound gyrator or simple needle aspiration. This relieves the symptom for most of the people.

If it gives persistent symptoms, we need to remove the capsule by making a small cut over the cyst to excise it completely. This is very rare but possible. And one more thing what you have to understand is, after doing a fat transfer if you start doing exercise and wanting to lose lots of weight the fat cell size also comes down. So we always advice, if you want to lose weight, you lose weight completely before you come for the fat transfer. After that when you lose weight, the bigger fat cells what we injected also shrink. So the breast size might come down.

Do not do any kind of exercise for two to three months post fat transfer. Because the fat whatever injected needs to get the blood supply and survive for few months .These are the instruction for a breast fat transfer.