Robert Whitfield MD explains fat transfer for breast augmentation: keep grafts in the plane beneath skin but above breast tissue. PCR testing found bacterial contamination in 29% of patients. The Wells Johnson system is used for the procedure.
Obviously, one in eight women get breast cancer. Women cognizant of screening. So when you're applying the principles of fat transfer to the breast, you want to stay beneath the skin, but above the breast tissue. I don't put it anywhere else but that plane. If you put it in the breast, you'll get cystic formation. More problems with cysts, predominantly. You'll see them on mammogram. I've had patients referred to me. I've had patients referred to me that have had that done. And then you don't put it in the place where I take an implant out of. So that would be either behind the breast tissue or it would be in the retrofector position. So that's not where it belongs either. 29% of our patients on PCR testing looks for DNA fragments show that they have bacterial contamination in that space which needs to be decontaminated or cleansed at the time of surgery, and that scar tissue is what contains that. So the things we think about in terms of fat transfer are obviously patient selection, timing, preparation, then proper placement. So we use the Wells Johnson fat transfer system, have for many, many years.
