Times of India
02 September 2010
By Risha Chitlangia
New Delhi, India

Fretting about your weight? Now, you can lose some of that fat and use it too. Plastic surgeons in the city are increasingly recommending autologous fat transfer procedure to their patients, especially women, who want to get rid of fine lines on their face or are keen on getting a breast augmentation done.

The procedure is gaining popularity among women between the age group of 20 and 35 years. "Facial contouring is an important part of cosmetic surgery. There is a huge demand for wrinkle and scar removal, cheekbone highlighting, filling depression underneath the eyes etc. Autologous fat transfer is a permanent solution to these problems," said Dr Ajay Kashyap, senior consultant, plastic and aesthetic surgeon, Fortis Healthcare.

In this process, doctors harvest fat from the patient’s abdomen and buttocks, filter it and inject it back into the subcutaneous tissue to add volume to depressed areas. "Depending on the area where the fat has to be injected, the quantity of fat harvested is decided. For correcting any facial asymmetry we need very small quality of fat cells. We usually do fat cell transfer in cases where there is facial asymmetry, trauma or any post–surgery depression," said Dr Biraj Nathani, senior consultant, aesthetic and reconstructive surgery, Max healthcare.

Once harvested the fat cells are separated from the oil and other body fluids using the centrifugal machine or filtering method. Since the procedure involves autologous (patient’s own) fat, there is no risk of rejection or disease transmission.

"It is a safe procedure. A patient can go back homethe same day. The result is evident soon after the fat cells are injected into the body," said Dr Nathani.

According to a recent global survey by the International Society of Aesthetic and Plastic Surgery (ISAPS), 5.9% of the total non–surgical cosmetic procedure are autologous fat transfers.

Apart from facial contouring, cosmetic surgeons are using this procedure for breast augmentation. "Till now, women had to rely on silicon implants for breast augmentation and the scar was inevitable. But now, one can get breast augmentation done without the scar. We inject the fat cell cells using a special injection. The biggest advantage is that the fat cells will multiply like other fat cells in the body," said Dr Vivek Kumar, consultant, plastic surgeon, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, who has done 120 cases of breast augmentation using this procedure. He recently presented a paper on breast augmentation at a conference in Delhi.

Experts said the fat is injected subcutaneously but at different layers of the skin. "We inject small quantity of fat at four–five different layers of the skin so that the fat cells get good blood circulation. As the fat is autologous, chances of infection and rejection are minimal," said Dr Kashyap.

The Answer Lies Within Autologous fat transfer is a procedure in which a patient’s own fat is harvested (from the abdomen, buttock, etc), processed and injected into the subcutaneous tissue to add extra volume to depressed areas. Plastic surgeons in the city are increasingly recommending this procedure as a substitute to dermal filler injections.

Commonly used for: Wrinkle removal, filling facial depression, scar removal, breast augmentation

COST
Facial procedure 5,000–30,000

Breast augmentation 1,00,000

Buttock augmentation 1,00,000 above

Advantages over dermal filler injections:
After transplantation, fat cells multiply and become a part of the body. In dermal filler injections the procedure has to be repeated after 6–9 months, but autologous transplant is a one–time procedure PROCEDURE 1 Fat is harvested from patient’s body using special needles 2 Harvested sample is put in a centrifuge machine to separate fat cells from blood and other components 3 The separated fat cells are injected in areas where reconstructive surgery is required. Small quantity of fat is injected in 3–4 layers of the skin so the new fat cells get sufficient blood circulation