Robert Whitfield MDAmerica's Breast Implant Illness Expert™

Explant & Fat Transfer: The Controversial Breast Surgery Explained #shorts

10 Feb 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:13

In this live presentation, Dr. Robert Whitfield outlines his approach to performing breast implant removal (explant) together with autologous fat transfer. He frames the procedure as a response to growing patient interest in explant surgery while preserving or restoring breast volume. The talk covers why the combined approach is considered controversial, how he determines which patients are suitable, the pre‑operative optimization steps (including health, inflammation status, and aesthetic goals), and the detailed surgical technique used to safely harvest, process, and inject fat at the same time as removing implants. Dr. Whitfield emphasizes individualized assessment, the importance of careful preparation, and postoperative recovery considerations, noting that outcomes vary based on each patient’s biology and goals.

Chapters

Hi, everyone. I'm Dr. Whitfield. Thanks for joining me live to watch. We're going to discuss simultaneous fat transfer and explant surgery. My poor practice in general is focused on breast implant removal, explant surgery, fat transfers, caring for patients with chronic inflammation from breast implants. So today I'm going to go through how I think about patient selections, optimization, and then execution of fat transfer simultaneously with explant surgery. And we're going to discuss, you know, what it is, why it can be deemed controversial, would it make sense to me, and how we approach it differently than other practices. This is an important conversation because many women are considering explant surgery, also concerned about how they're going to look afterwards, especially with the big changes in volume that can happen. And can a fat transfer be done and can it be done safely at the same time? And, you know, the answer is different for each person. Each person is their own individual, their own biology, and the preparation, the surgical technique and how they're prepared and recovered is very important.