Plastic Surgery Blog

Ever wish you could take the excess fat from your belly, hips and thighs and move it to your breasts? Perhaps a more appropriate question might be what woman hasn’t? The fact is that it’s actually possible. The procedure is called fat grafting, but, despite its almost universal appeal, the jury’s still out as to whether or not the procedure is safe or even effective.

Here’s what you should know about fat grafting for breast augmentation:

• Fat grafting involves the transfer of fat cells from one body part to another. Surgeons remove fat cells using liposuction and then transfer them to the breasts via multiple small injections.
• The procedure has been used for augmenting breasts since the 1980’s. At that time, however, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) and the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) cautioned against the procedure because the side effects—tissue scarring, oil cysts, and calcification—made identifying breast cancer through mammography more difficult.
• Not much evidence exists suggesting that fat grafting is safer or more effective than traditional augmentation techniques using saline or silicone breast implants.
• Risks associated with fat grafting include the formation of oil cysts, calcification, tissue scarring, absorption and/or non-survival of the harvested fat cells. Cysts, scarring of tissue, and calcifications, despite advances in mammography technology, can still mimic or conceal breast cancer.
• Fat grafting usually requires multiple sessions and often requires lengthier recovery times than needed with implants.
• The procedure can be used to enhance breast appearance after reconstruction surgery or to soften the appearance of implants in thin women who have experienced rippling.
• Currently, neither the ASAPS nor the ASPS recommend fat grafting for breast augmentation since there is little evidence documenting its safety or efficacy.

Technorati Tags: fat grafting, breast augmentation

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At the urging of a friend, I recently started Netflixing the popular plastic surgery drama Nip/Tuck. It’s a particularly dark series, bordering on the macabre even, that explores the ugly side of what it means to be beautiful in America. Its cynicism aside, the show raises some interesting and, I think, important questions with regard to the role of plastic surgery in modern society.

In an early episode, one of the characters, plastic surgeon Dr. Sean McNamara, looks as his partner, Dr. Christian Troy, and sees a man corrupted by greed and driven to shady, unethical practices. This sparks a crisis of conscience in Dr. McNamara and causes him to question the purpose of his work. He ultimately comes to the realization that in order to redeem respect for himself and his profession, he needs to commit a certain portion of his practice to pro bono work.

Although selfless in the beginning, the two partners later decide to take on the case of a rape victim for good publicity—of which they are in desperate need at the time—which raises the question: Is pro bono still pro bono if the motive is self-serving and not purely altruistic?

I remember an episode of Dr. 90210 in which Dr. Robert Rey travels to Mexico to do pro bono work with a foundation committed to treating indigent children with deformities. Anyone who watches Dr. 90210 knows that Dr. Rey is completely and helplessly egocentric—each procedure he performs is more about himself than the patient. In Mexico, it was no different. Still, even if it was more about Dr. Rey than it was about the children, wasn’t he doing a good thing?

Despite individual motives on the part of the surgeon—and motives aren’t always selfish—pro bono work has a positive impact in society. The patient is the one who reaps the ultimate reward.

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