Everything you need to know about Fat Transfer

Fat transfer - also known as fat grafting, autologous fat transfer, lipofilling or lipo-injection — is the ultimate in tissue enhancement. Fat transfer is the very definition of upcycling! It involves transferring individual live cells (adipocytes and stem cells) to enhance the quality of your own tissues elsewhere.

Fat is removed from areas of unwanted or excess body fat (abdomen, flanks, thighs, knees, back etc) and transplanted to areas that would benefit from rejuvenation, regeneration or volume enhancement such as breast, face, scar.

Fat transfer for breast enhancement

Rozina has long held that “Fat is the future and soon all breasts will be enhanced this way!”

Fat transfer alone can increase breast volume by 1-2 cup sizes and restore volume deficit after breast-conserving surgery such as a lumpectomy and radiotherapy. Fat transfer is pre-eminent in cases of breast asymmetry or if specific areas require enhancement rather than the whole breast eg. upper pole deflation following weight loss or breastfeeding.

Fat transfer may also be used in conjunction with breast reduction to enhance the upper pole or the cleavage, with a mastopexy (breast uplift) to enhance volume and fullness and with any variation of breast implants, capsulotomy/capsulectomy and or exchange of implants, allowing smaller implants to be used for the same effect and deliver more natural feeling/moving breasts.

Fat transfer for facial rejuvenation

Rozina has been using concentrated, purified fat to practice facial rejuvenation for over a decade. Fat transfer may be used to add volume to some areas of the face (temples, cheeks), but more often than not the stem cell component of fat transfer is used to enhance skin quality, soften creases and wrinkles and enhance the luminosity of the skin. 

Fat transfer for scalp & hair

Fat transfer and enriched stem cells can further be used to naturally stimulate and restart scalp hair growth and revitalise dormant follicles.

Kerastem Advanced Hair Therapy is clinically proven to prevent male and female pattern hair loss and to re-grow dormant hairs. The process relies on extracting and enriching autologous stem cells which are added to a small amount of your own fat and this enriched mixture injected into your scalp to induce hair growth.

Kerastem hair therapy is clinically proven to prevent hair loss and to induce regrowth. It is a great option for women suffering from early stage hair loss (androgenetic alopecia or hormone-dependent hair loss).

About the fat transfer procedure

Fat transfer is a multi-stepped process: Firstly, fat needs to be carefully harvested in a process that is superficially similar to liposuction but designed to ensure that the fat cells harvested are alive, unbroken and accompanied by the rich supply of stem cells found clustered near the subcutaneous blood vessels. A less aggressive tumescent fluid is used to infiltrate the fatty tissue and a gentle mechanical or power assisted (vibrating) liposuction device is used to dislodge the fat and float out intact living fat cells using lower suction pressures. In this way a rich supply of fat and stem cells are harvested healthy, intact and viable.

The harvested fat is then prepared by being washed, filtered and purified. This is best done in a closed, sterile system which allows for the aspiration of small aliquots (10-20mls) for careful re-injection into the recipient site. Fat injection is performed using a multiplanar technique, laying down lots of thin layers of fat close to skin or muscle or fascia. Traditionally 50- 70% of fat cells are thought to survive the transfer process and ‘take’ as a living graft. Expertise, experience and techniques make a significant difference to this and Rozina is enjoying some very noteworthy results which are also forming part of an international PhD study.

Thick, pure fat aliquots for facial transfer are usually prepared by centrifugation (spun to separate components) but larger more liquid fat volumes required for breast transfer are best prepared using a closed filtration system.

It is thought that fat cell survival is initially dependent on oxygen diffusion and later to establishing a new blood supply. The number and quality of viable fat cells at the time of transfer is essential to long term graft volume, thus harvesting technique and purification process are important to a successful outcome. 

Surgical expertise and experience are key factors in the success of any fat harvest and transfer procedure. Another key determinant of outcome is the status of the recipient site (healthy tissue, good blood supply) thus efforts to optimising this aspect of the process using continuous wave radiofrequency are ongoing in Rozina’s practice.

Reconstructive and cosmetic procedures using adipose tissue (fat) are well-established techniques, now in use across the globe. Conventionally, the fat is harvested at the same time that it is used in the reconstructive or cosmetic procedure. However, if the volume of fat required is large, then serial lipofilling will be necessitated.

To further enhance the success of her fat transfer practice, Rozina has partnered with The Regenerative clinic and “Tissue and Cell Technologies”  in order to provide storage of excess harvested fat, which may be stored for several years and thawed on request for out-patient fat injection treatment. Fat storage in this novel way allows for all the fat needed to be harvested under a single general anaesthetic during the first operation. The fat is frozen directly and stored in a licensed Human Tissue Bank until it is requested to be returned, when some or all of the fat may be thawed for reconstructive or aesthetic use.

This offers an invaluable potential for serial volume enhancement for those undergoing post partial or full mastectomy breast reconstruction, correction of breast developmental abnormalities or congenital breast asymmetry. Smaller aliquots can be made available for those undergoing facial aesthetic regeneration or scalp hair restoration.