Fat Transfer for Breast Surgery

An exciting development in the field of onco-breast surgery is the increasing availability of a procedure utilising your own body fat for breast reconstruction following mastectomy or lumpectomy. This treatment can offer advantages over both silicone and saline breast implants but it is essential that the procedure is conducted by an experienced and qualified surgeon. The surgery involves the use of small needles to extract the fat and several small, blunt, syringes or cannulas to inject the fat into the breast tissue without damaging the nerves and blood vessels in the area.

A More Natural Look

Fat grafting gives you an option for breast reconstruction that has allowed many women to achieve considerable satisfaction with the natural look, and feel, of their breasts post-surgery. After discussing the procedure with your surgeon you may feel that it is an attractive option to synthetic implants after your mastectomy or lumpectomy. You may, in addition, enjoy the idea of losing a little of the fat from the transfer location such as the buttocks, abdomen, or thighs, seeing this as an added bonus that can streamline your figure and rebalance your bodyline after reconstructive breast surgery. As many women combating breast cancer have found, this can give a welcome boost to your confidence and body image.

Possible Risks

Autologous fat grafting is a complex technique meaning that there are safety concerns over inappropriate application of the procedure by those who are insufficiently qualified to carry it out. Improvements in the extraction, preparation, and delivery mechanisms for transferring fat cells have addressed anxieties over the necrosis of the tissue after implantation, the development of haematomas and the possibility of infection. Sometimes fat necrosis can calcify and form microcalcifications.

You should be reassured that your surgeon is highly trained and qualified to carry out this procedure in order to give you satisfaction with your breast reconstruction.

For Radiotherapy Damage or Post-Mastectomy/Lumpectomy

Fat transfer is becoming an increasingly attractive option if you have post-lumpectomy deformity, post-mastectomy deformity, or damage from radiotherapy and nipple reconstruction, amongst other conditions. Due to the high degree of training involved in this complex surgical procedure, there are few places offering the technique in the UK.

An Attractive Option if You Have Small Breasts

If you have particularly small breasts with little residual tissue after breast cancer surgery then this procedure may help to soften the appearance of your breasts and hide the visibility of any implants you may have chosen. Recovery time from the procedure may be a little less than with implants but there are two sites to heal, the breast itself and the area from which the fat was taken. Fat transfer removes the possibility of capsular contracture which can occur with implants and you may feel that it gives your new breasts a more natural feel comparable with your original breasts.

How the Breast Changes Over Time

There may be some changes in the appearance of the breast over time after you have a fat transfer procedure but the degree of dissipation originally thought to occur is now considered unlikely with the technique offering an attractive alternative to implants which need replacing every ten years or so. If you desire breast reconstruction but are uncomfortable with the idea of an implant due to it being a foreign object then using your own fat tissue to reconstruct your breast is an option worth exploring. Additionally, the fat transfer procedure removes the possible risk of recurrence of breast cancer being obscured by an implant on a mammogram as the fat tissue does not block x-rays.