Facial fat grafting

WHAT IS FAT GRAFTING?

Fat grafting is the term used to describe removal of fat from one part of the body and transplantation of this fat into another part of the body. Fat from one patient can only be used on that same patient and cannot be "donated" to another patient for fat grafting. The procedure itself consists of transferring very small "packets" or aliquots of fat into the recipient tissue. The principle is similar to that of a skin graft, as the small "packets" of fat receive their initial nutrition for staying alive from the surrounding tissues, and eventually survive by your body actually establishing and growing blood vessels to the new fat. In general, 50-75% of the fat transferred will stay, so if 100ml of fat is transferred to a certain part of the body, a patient can expect to retain 50-75ml at most after they are completely healed.

WHO IS A GOOD CANDIDATE?

Facial fat injections are used to augment and fill areas such as the under-eye area, cheeks, nasolabial folds and lips. Patients who undergo this surgery will often have tried injectable temporary facial fillers such as Juvederm® or Restylane® and are wanting a more permanent solution than temporary fillers provide.

THE PROCEDURE

The procedure is usually done under sedation or general anesthesia in an ambulatory surgery center. Fat is removed via liposuction from an area that fat is unwanted, such as the abdomen, love handles or inner thighs, and injected directly into the areas of the face the patient would like augmented. The incisions for the liposuction are about 3mm in size, and the injection sites are usually about 1mm in size or smaller. Typically, the fat retention rate (what percentage actually survives and stays in place) is 50-75%, so we prefer to overfill the injected areas, anticipating that they will shrink down in size by 25-50% over the first 1-3 months.

RECOVERY

Recovery from facial fat grafting is quite fast. The patient will be moderately swollen and bruised in the areas where fat was removed and injected for about 1½-2 weeks. The swelling in the fat injected areas will dissipate mostly in the first 3-4 weeks, then be at their final size at 3 months after the procedure. Depending on how much fat is removed from the donor sites, the patient may have compression garments that need to be worn for 3-4 weeks.