Fat graft entire breast

No I had fat grafting for enhancement. But I think a lot got reabsorbed. I had DIEP and I could never do sports like I use to, I worry about the abdominal surgery and having core strengh.

I want to do the exact same procedure SkiQueen and it's not easy to find a PS who does it. My problem is that I did a lot of swimming when I was younger and my pectoral muscles are very strong. So I get tendinitis because spasms with the implant. Stefajoy did you do it with Dr K. in Miami ? Did you suffer a lot of pain in the donor sites ? How many days after each procedure could you go back to work ?

I want to add, when I say 5 days recovery I mean that's when you can get out of bed and move around well. He doesn't even take the dressing off for at least three or four days. I had various levels of pain and discomfort for almost a month after each procedure.

hi All

I'm in the middle of the brava-aft process. Although I did a consult with Khouri, I chose a ps in Orlando. I had radiation after mastectomy so it took a great deal of time to heal skin and release scar.

I chose ps because he does lipo once and then freezes fat for following procedures. So I'm up the next day. Was sore after lipo for awhile. So now the skin is stretching. I've done four procedures to heal skin, the next ones will be to create volume to match other side. I'm a small B.

I too decided implants and flaps were not an option. Downside is that it's slow. Healing took a year...I hope to finish this year. Have to do a second lipo because I ran out of banked fat.

It's a process.

I couldn't commit to the lipo every time. And it is fairly painful -- something that is seem to left out when it's called noninvasive!

I do wish it was faster, but it seems there are multiple procedures for any type of recon that spans 12 or 18 months.

I saw my PS last evening. I am the perfect candidate for this procedure. In a first instance, he thought I was too thin to get a good result. But once I undressed completely, he admitted I have enough fat for the four procedures (I got 8 pounds just to be candidate to this surgery !). He showed me pictures of patients who got this kind of reconstruction. I was flying with the angels because of the magnificent results I saw.

The remove of my implant and the fat grafting are to be held in february due to insurance problems I have to fix before.

I will post after the first procedure to give a feedback.

I too think the tricky part of fat graphing a whole breast is finding a ps that will do it and actually has experience in doing it outside florida. My cousins ps said he would do it then changed his mind. It is a very new procedure in reconstruction for many plastic surgeons.Of course they (docs)want to go with those reconstruction types they feel the most successful with.

I had both sides rebuilt with fat grafting with dr. K in miami in 2011/2012. I was a D before the reconstruction and he grafted me back to a D after 3 procedures. I think this happened because i didn't need rads, and he basically re-filled my breasts starting immediately at the time of bmx. They left the extra skin at the time of bmx, so I looked deflated untill the process was done, but since the skin was already there and didn't need to stretch out to accommodate the grafted fat he was able really put a lot in every time. Ive lost little or no fat (mostly this is not cause for celebration with all the other body parts) from the reconstruction in the last 4 years.

Im not sure how he's doing it now but I wore the hugely cumbersome Brava before and after each procedure.

Sorry to hear about your difficulties stefajoy, I know rads make things harder for reconstruction.

SkiQueen: I'm doing this now, bilateral. First round was about 2 months ago, and as PS predicted, about half of the transferred fat stayed put. This is not in Florida and not using any external suction devices. I had tissue expanders placed during original surgeries (cancer mx and then prophylactic mx on other side over a year later). Everybody's different when it comes to pain, but it was no big deal for me, no painkillers needed at all, and just avoided any heavy lifting or aggressive stretching for a few days, but otherwise normal activity.

For the first round, he raided my middle-age tummy bulge and a little way over to each side of that. I expect 2-3 more rounds, and he'll be taking fat from various locations. I'd say I'm slender-to-medium weight -- not worried about fat shortage, but taking enough to replace both breasts will probably eradicate all my unwanted bulges. If you're very thin, that means more locations need to be used to harvest fat than if you were plumper, but I was pleasantly surprised how large an area he was able to harvest from with just one teeny incision on each side (closed with one stitch, and covered with a teeny round band-aid), and in your case you only need to harvest enough to rebuild one breast. Since you're aiming for an A size (that's my goal too), I think fat grafting is probably a good option for you.

I don't want to give a lot more detail on the open forum, but if you PM me I'll be happy to answer your questions.

thx for starting this thread. I had a BMX with TEs. After 6 months of my exchange surgery,I had an infection around my implant in my radiated site. So lostthe implant 1 year ago. Now I have one silicone and one large ugly crater. I recently talk to a PS and asked if he could do fat grafting. Even if to fill the indentation. He said he could create a new breast out of my belly skin and fat. No muscle cutting.

Anyone heard of this or tried it?

Once I get my cancer under control, I will look further into this as I will need to stop treatment for the surgery.

Thanks, Meow. I am going to come back to this thread once I am in a position to get the procedure done. I'm still in treatment and will have to stop tx to do the reconstruction. I thought a DIEP involved muscle grafting which I am not willing to do. How successful is fat grafting a full breast on radiated tissue?

Thanks for starting this topic. After weighing all my options, I have decided that fat grafting is the best for me because 1., I was flat-chested before my double mastectomy so I'm only aiming for an A-B cup, and 2., I have had some movement issues with all my scar tissue (and have done a lot of PT for it), so don't want to add another (reconstruction) surgery. However, my concern is that both breast areas were radiated after surgery and I understand that a lot of PS won't attempt BRAVA/fat grafting after this. I would like to find a PS locally who is confident about doing this, but I'm not sure how to go about the search. I realize that Dr. K. in Miami is probably the expert in this field, but getting to Miami several times a year and staying there to recover would be a financial hardship for me. Does anyone know of a PS near Maryland who does this? I'm willing to travel to nearby states as well.

I had my implant removal and first fat grafting yesterday. For the moment I am in pain as expected. I have an appointement next monday to take off the dressing and see the result. I got 250cc of fat for this first step. My natural breast (right one) is 500cc so the PS expects 3 surgeries, this one inluded.

Misstic, I am so happy it turned out well!

My right breast fat graft is really nice, like yours. But my left, radiated breast still has issues. I think I could actually get a better result with one more surgery....but I m not ready for that yet.

Stefanie