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Fat injection, or autologous fat transplantation, transfers fat from one part of the body to another. Body fat serves as a great source of soft tissue filler material, that is natural and non-allergenic, used to recontour the face, diminish frown lines, crow’s feet, nasolabial folds (smile lines), and to give definition to areas. Fat injections can also fill out depressed scarred areas of the body. This sometimes non-permanent procedure may require maintenance as it can last from several months to permanently. Generally, patients receive 3-4 treatments over a six-month span for the longest lasting effect. Fat injections are outpatient procedures performed under an hour. The donor site and the treatment site are injected with a local anesthetic. The donor site also gets an IV, intravenous fluids, injected to facilitate fat collection. A small needle attached to a syringe extracts the fat cell, which then gets processed to remove the excess fluids and re-injected with another needle in multiple think strands to the desired area. The fat is absorbed in the weeks after the treatment so the patient is “overfilled” with fat during the procedure to make up for the potential loss. Fat from a liposuction is sometimes used to inject somewhere else, which proves to be cost effective as well. Because the fat used in fat injections come from the patient’s own body there is no pre-testing required and the fat cannot be rejected. For patients who are allergic to bovine collagen, fat injections are a good alternative. Very little downtime is required after the procedure and any discomfort can be treated with medication. Swelling and bruising usually lasts 2 days after the fat injection and patients should avoid the sun until the conditions subside. Results will vary from patient to patient, including the longevity of the fat injection. Fat injections last the longest when the fat is re-injected to a fairly stationary area, like the cheeks. Some body areas are inappropriate for fat injections. Fat injections into the breasts can result in difficult cancer detection.
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