Centrum Estetyki Ciała

Patients’ own fatty tissue is used both in aesthetic surgery (filling wrinkles, smoothing out of skin folds, lip enhancement) and in reconstructive surgery (restoring soft tissue lost in injuries, diseases or as a result of inborn defects).
The fatty tissue is usually obtained from over the mons pubis or the medial area of the thighs.
The procedure resembles a typical liposuction with the exemption that much less fat volume is withdrawn. At the first stage, a few small cuts are made in the skin to insert a large-bore needle, by means of which an artificial oedema is created by injecting a liquid which contains a vasoconstrictor to reduce post-operative bleeding. Then, cannulas fitted on special syringes are used to aspire the required amount of fatty tissue. After stitching up and dressing of the wound, the donor site is pressed with wide plasters or a compression garment. Fatty tissue is always transplanted with some excess, as a portion of the fatty cells is damaged during the withdrawal and application, and the released fat undergoes biodegradation. Therefore, the volume of transferred fatty tissue decreases by up to 30%. In such cases the procedure must be repeated.
Possible complications include a haematoma at the donor or recipient site, suppuration of the wound and uneven surface of the treated areas.
Duration of the procedure depends on the amount of fatty tissue to be transferred and the nature of the donor and recipient sites. It can span from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours.

Also read about lipofilling.

Or how to use your own fat for beauty?

As time goes by we can’t help noticing the changes our faces undergo.  The proportions change, wrinkles appear, shades develop and the mouth corners drop. How to fight that?
Where do these changes come from?
Whatever happens on our faces is an effect of chronological ageing and sun damage. In childhood the “cherubic” face results from its filling with soft tissues. Young adults are in the state of aesthetic balance with the fatty tissue evenly distributed in all cosmetic units. Light spots prevail on the face and shady areas are rare. Lively facial expressions show that muscles move independently of the skin, causing slight folding here and there.
With time, the ageing face loses the roundness of the forehead and a number of atrophic and hypertrophic changes occur, manifested in “hills and valleys”. As the body’s fatty tissue accumulates the fat does not spare the face, accumulating laterally from the nasolabial grooves on the cheeks to the chin. In the other areas of the face the fatty tissue disappears causing visible depression. At that time the facial muscles come up nearer to the skin surface, disturbing the dynamic balance between their contracting strength and the skin thickness. The use of botulinum toxin, which reduces the contractility of facial muscles, restores the balance, and gets rid of the wrinkles and lines for some time.
Has aesthetic medicine found a way to stop the loss of fatty tissue then?
Indeed, that is what volumetric treatment is used for. It consists in restoration of the desired volume of soft facial tissues by inserting an implant under the skin which restores the lost volume. To this end both artificial implants – with currently the most popular hyaluronic acid – and own fatty tissue are used.

So, there is a use for the damn fat!
Yes, lipofilling  is a surgical method of transplanting your own fatty tissue. The procedure can be carried out at an out-patient clinic. The fat is withdrawn from the patient, usually from the area of the thighs, hips or stomach. The treatment has a number of advantages:
- short time of procedure (about 40 to 60 minutes)
- short time of recovery – a few days
- rejuvenating effect
- no scarring
- possibility to combine with other surgical procedures -  e.g. eyelid surgery
- little risk of complications
- possibility to repeat the procedure
- lower costs as the filler material is “free”.
The fat can be injected to correct nasolabial grooves or cheeks, to enhance the lips or to improve the areas where fatty tissue is missing or scarce.
Temporary swelling and bruising may develop after the procedure.  As a result, the hollow or sunken areas of the face are filled, which gives the skin a “lifting effect”. The transferred fat also has a beneficial influence on the quality of skin, making it younger by stimulating the growth of new blood vessels in the recipient site, which increases metabolism and enhances regenerative processes.
Can we apply the fat to other areas as well?
Besides the face the fat can be transferred to wherever it has been missing or lost in other parts of the body, such as arms, buttocks or breasts, achieving a rejuvenating and lifting effect.
Currently, breasts can be made bigger with either a prosthesis or with our own fat.
That is right, but they are not the only ways to do so, as recently breast augmentation with a new hyaluronic acid preparation injected in the breasts has been introduced in our country. A fifteen-minute procedure carried out with local anaesthesia, one injection per breast and you have got an immediate effect.