Robert Whitfield MD discusses fat transfer surgery, where fat harvested from the abdomen or thighs is injected into the breast, buttock, or face for augmentation. About 60% of transferred breast fat survives long-term, while facial fat grafts retain nearly all volume. Success depends on patient anatomy and realistic expectations about size gains.
Questions this video answers
About 100 cases per year (over the past five years).
About 50–80% survival; ~60% cited as a useful average.
Abdomen (tummy) and thighs; flanks may be less well vascularized; thighs increasingly predominant for thinner patients.
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Transferring money from one account to the other, it's a good idea and it can be done pretty easily. Transferring fat from one area of the body to the other can be done, and it's probably a good idea. But expectations, I'm sure, are probably challenging, to say the least. Can I take some fat from my waist and can I make breast larger?
Yes. I think one of the paramount things that's changed in plastic surgery, all these new inventions come along, but one of the things that's fundamentally changed our profession is use of fat. You know, years ago, people weren't putting it in faces after facelifts. Years ago, people weren't adding it like they are adding it now or taking it away from places. I see it as a real tool. I think you have to manage expectations in terms of what it can do and what it can't do. But sometimes it's about taking it away as much as where you add it.
Yeah. I've done about 100 fat grafting cases to the breast per year over the past five years. I've refined our harvesting the fat, our processing of the fat, our re injection of the fat. The only variable that changes in that is the patient. So you can always narrow waist with liposuction, but when you transfer the fat back to the patient and the breast site in particular, depends on the breast site. Is this somebody who's postpartum? Have they had weight loss, weight gain, have they had implants removed, replaced? Are they thin? What's the issue with the patient?
Those are the variables.
And when people want a cup size, two cup sizes, that's really not a realistic expectation.
Is that the typical transfer from waist to breast?
I think it depends. Typically, I think if you're doing body sculpting, then you can see that. I mean, honestly, it's usually patient comes in for liposuction, but I think we're at a point now where you don't have to just say, hey, let's just throw that away. I mean, that's something that can be used and it can be repurposed. It's a very common thing that we see used for facial surgery nowadays.
Is there good fat and bad fat?
I would say it's the person, you know, I've transferred this to the buttock area, to the breast, to the face. The face always heals. Almost all of it. The breast variable. 60% is a good number thing. 50 to 80. There's a range, depends on the person you transfer it from.
Is there a best place to take it from?
Yes. And No. I mean, obviously there's places where the patient doesn't want it taken from, but I think tummy, I think thighs are typically the places that we take it from. Tends to maybe not be as well vascularized on the flanks.
Sure.
For thinner patients who are designing natural augmentation, they'll come in, they won't have an abdomen or a flank area you can use. So thigh is becoming the predominant area and it heals well. That's fine.
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