Fat Tissue Augmentation

Dr. Zemplenyi offers augmentation of soft tissue of the face (cheeks, lips, etc) with patient's own fat especially when such adipose tissue is available during liposuction. Fat augmentation may also be performed as a separate procedure, especially when larger volumes of soft tissue augmentation and filling are needed.  In some patients persistence of transplanted fat may be achieved with more than one session of augmentation.

Ever since the advent of liposuction in the early 1980's various physicians have been using harvested fat for augmentation of soft tissue defects and volumetric filling.  Fat transfer is an appealing concept because patients tend to have a sufficient amount of their own fatty tissue in the donor sites (abdomen, hips, buttocks) to allow for transfer  injection of larger volume. Thus it is possible to achieve three-dimensional volumetric filling and correction of gravity sagging and age-related volume loss  in facial structures  such as the cheeks. The problem with fat transfer has been the relative unpredictability of the volume of fat cells that survive the transplant and become viable in the new recipient site.  Survival of transplanted fat cells depends on multiple factors such as the gentleness of harvesting at the donor site and the micro-injection technique used to build the volume in the recipient site. Survival of the fat is dependent on the volume of transplanted fat injected into each created small tunnel, purity of the fat with absence of free oil or blood, and depth of placement of the fat into the underlying muscle versus the normal fatty layer.  Adjunctive substances may be used to further stabilize and preserve the harvested fat.

Using these concepts for optimization of survival of fat transplants, Dr. Zemplenyi has seen patients in whom the transplanted fat lasted more than one year. However, durability of transplanted fat is not fully predictable, and Dr. Zemplenyi offers this technique principally as an adjunctive procedure for patients undergoing such operations as facelifts where the patient benefits from a large volume of tissue augmentation and is already under anesthesia. Fat transfer augmentation may be performed as a separate procedure both under local anesthesia or with sedation "twilight sleep", especially in patients who require a large volume of filling as this technique bypasses the high cost and limited volume encountered when commercially available volumetric fillers such Radiesse or Sculptra are used.