Fat Grafting After Breast Surgery

Micro-fat grafting

Small amounts of your own fat, placed where an implant or a flap still looks thin.

The approach

What fat grafting is for

Micro-fat grafting moves a small volume of your own fat from one place, usually the abdomen or thighs, and places it in the breast in fine amounts. In reconstruction it is used to fill a lumpectomy hollow, soften an implant edge that shows through thin skin, blend a flap, or add modest volume after an implant has been removed.

It is not a single operation that replaces a mastectomy reconstruction. Some of the fat is reabsorbed, so the result is judged after healing, and a second session is common. It does not treat breast cancer, and it is not done in a way that would hide a needed mammogram. Screening continues. The radiologist is told fat grafting was performed, because grafted fat can leave small calcifications that should not be mistaken for a new lesion.

Dr. Sayah does the grafting. If there is a new lump or an imaging question afterward, Dr. Funk and Dr. Takasumi are already in the practice.

This is general information about how these questions are usually approached. It is not a diagnosis, and it does not replace a visit. Screening and treatment are planned for one person at a time.

What a grafting session involves

Fat is taken with a fine cannula from a place you can spare it, commonly the abdomen or the outer thigh, prepared, and placed in small amounts in the breast. Small amounts are the point. Large boluses die and form oil cysts. The session is often outpatient. Bruising at the donor site lasts longer than people expect, and the breast looks fuller at first than it will look once the swelling and the fat that does not survive have settled.

A second session is common, sometimes a third, especially when the goal is to cover an implant edge or to build more than a small contour. Grafting does not replace a flap or an implant for a full mastectomy defect in most women. It finishes a reconstruction or fills a lumpectomy hollow.

Tell every future mammogram that fat was grafted, and bring the dates. Calcifications from grafting are usually recognizable and should not be called a new cancer, but only if the radiologist knows they might be there. A new lump is still examined. Dr. Funk and Dr. Takasumi are who that examination comes back to.

Common questions

Frequently asked questions

Can fat grafting rebuild a whole breast?

Large-volume grafting is sometimes used, in stages, for selected women. It is not the default whole-breast reconstruction. An implant or a flap is still the usual way to restore a mastectomy defect.

Does grafted fat interfere with mammograms?

It can leave oil cysts or calcifications. They are usually distinguishable from cancer when the radiologist knows grafting was done. Bring the operative dates to every future mammogram.

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