Fat Transfer Breast Augmentation

Before you undergo any plastic surgery procedure at Karidis Clinic, you will have a consultation and a pre-operative assessment with your plastic surgeon. They will listen carefully to your concerns and what you expect to achieve and discuss which procedure, or combination of procedures, is appropriate.

At this stage, they will also ensure you are fully aware of the potential risks and complications inherent in that specific procedure and explain to you what you can expect immediately after surgery, throughout the recovery process, and when you will likely see the final results.

During the pre-operative assessment, the surgeon may take measurements of the area to be operated on and assess your skin tissue quality and the degree of skin laxity. The position of the incisions will also be decided upon.

A full medical history will be taken to ensure you are fit and well and can undergo surgery at this time.

After the initial consultation, there will be a two-week ‘cooling-off’ period before you can decide to proceed with surgery. You are welcome to return for further consultations with your Karidis Clinic surgeon, free of charge, if you have more questions.

If you make the decision to proceed with surgery, you’ll be given advice on how best to prepare for your operation, and you will have a dedicated Patient Coordinator who can answer any queries you may have.

Any pre-surgery tests can occur at the Hospital of St John & St Elizabeth, a leading London private hospital where Karidis Clinic is based. The hospital has recently built a new wing including a diagnostic department with the latest X-ray, MRI, CT and ultrasound technology.

We advise patients to stop smoking as soon as possible as nicotine acts as a vasoconstrictor, which impedes the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the surgical site. This can slow down healing, increase the chance of infection and even cause tissue to die. Smoking also increases the risks of a general anaesthetic, and smokers are more likely to suffer ill effects from an anaesthetic.

You will also be advised when to discontinue taking aspirin or other blood-thinning medication in advance of your operation. You will be asked to fast six hours before surgery.

All Karidis Clinic procedures are performed at the Hospital of St John & St Elizabeth. When you arrive, you’ll be greeted and taken to your stylish and luxurious private room with its spacious ensuite bathroom.

The nursing team will take your blood pressure and relevant vitals, and you will see your Karidis Clinic surgeon, who will make the final mark-ups. Our anaesthetist will also visit you.

Clinical photography will be taken to assist in your care and to enable clinical assessments to be made. These become part of your confidential medical record. These include photographs of the operation site and any distinguishing features and will be taken pre-op and post-op. 

Your procedure will be performed under a general anaesthetic, and once the surgeon has sutured the incision site, you will be taken to a specialist recovery room.

Once the hospital nursing team has ensured your recovery is complete, you will be taken to your hospital room for your overnight stay. The hospital nursing team will be on hand throughout the night, and you will be fitted with compression stockings and a compression device if required.

The following day, you will be visited by your Karidis Clinic surgeon or nurse and then discharged into the care of a friend or family member by the hospital nursing staff.

The pain and discomfort experienced after surgery are unique to the individual patient and the extent of their procedure. However, it should start to subside in the first week and should be easily managed with over-the-counter painkillers.

If necessary, you’ll be advised to wear a specially designed surgical support garment for approximately six weeks after surgery to support you during the healing process.

Depending on the nature of your job, you can usually expect to be able to return to work and normal activities between one to two weeks.

You’ll be given a comprehensive plan for the recovery process, including dates for your cast or suture removal and your check-ups with your Karidis Clinic surgeon. However, we are always on hand throughout this period, and you have access to our dedicated surgical nurse 24/7 if you have any concerns.

During your consultation with your surgeon, they will assess your suitability for the fat transfer breast augmentation procedure. Ideally, you’ll be near your ideal body weight, but you’ll have some excess fat tissue available for harvesting. You mustn’t be planning to lose a great deal of weight in the future as that will affect your long-term results.

Your expectations will also be assessed as the fat transfer breast augmentation produces a much more subtle enhancement which won’t be suitable for you if you want to increase your cup size significantly. Fat transfer to the breasts is also a fantastic procedure for correcting asymmetrical breasts.

There are many reasons why you may consider a fat transfer to your breasts as an alternative to breast implants. In recent years, there have been some concerns over breast implants — although this is continually being assessed by the UK government health regulatory agency, the MHRA (their current advice is that they are still considered a safe device).

One of the issues with breast implants, though, is that it is a foreign object and the body reacts by encapsulating the breast in tissue and this can result in the breast implant becoming hard or misshapen, a complication known as capsular contracture. The body will not react in the same way to autologous fat being transferred from another part of the body to the breast.

Breast implants are also not considered a lifetime device and you may require further surgery in the future to replace or remove your implants. Fat that has been transferred successfully to the breasts should remain there permanently. You’ll also see better definition in the areas where the fat has been removed.

Typically, fat transfer to the breasts is a less invasive procedure than a breast augmentation with implants and requires less recovery. Your scars will be minimal, both in the area where the fat is taken and also the breasts.

First, your surgeon will remove fat from the donor area by liposuctioning the fat tissue. It is then processed to remove any impurities and then carefully injected into your breasts to restore volume. Some of the transplanted fat tissue will fail to graft, which means it will just be naturally reabsorbed by the body, so usually, the breasts will be ‘overfilled’.

Over the next few months, your final results will emerge, and you should go up a half a cup size to one full cup size. It’s perfectly safe for you to undergo a repeat procedure and many women have more than one session to achieve the results they desire.

There’ll be some bruising and soreness in the area of the body where the fat was taken, but this will subside over the next week or two. Recovery is generally quicker after fat transfer to the breasts than if implants are used.

Learn more about your breast augmentation recovery timeline.

You can best prepare for a fat transfer breast augmentation by:

• Do as much online research as possible about the procedure
• Find an experienced surgeon with an expertise in fat transfer
• Provide a detailed medical history to your chosen surgeon
• Lose some weight if needed (as guided by your surgeon)
• Stop taking aspirin and blood-thinning medications
• Stop smoking four weeks before the procedure
• Plan time off work
• Prepare your home for your recovery period
• Ask someone to help you in the first few days of your recovery (transport, meals, childcare, etc)

This is a relatively new approach, where breast implants are combined with fat transfer. There are many reasons why a hybrid breast augmentation might be the appropriate choice for you. It allows your plastic surgeon to sculpt your breasts in a way that isn’t always possible with breast implants alone. A round implant can be used and then fat transfer is used to produce a more natural shape and increased volume in the upper part of your breast.

Furthermore, breast implants can feel very heavy and impact your skin elasticity over time. If you want a larger augmentation, then combining fat transfer with a smaller implant will mean less trauma to your breasts while achieving the same increase in size.

If you are contemplating a breast implant replacement you may also decide to have a hybrid breast augmentation. It means your breast implants can be exchanged for a smaller, lighter implant but any discrepancy in size can be addressed with fat transfer. Alternatively, you may not wish to have your breast implants exchanged but instead removed altogether and a breast uplift and fat transfer combination procedure may be performed.