Structural Fat Grafting

Structural fat grafting is a procedure in which a surgeon harvests fat from one part of your body and places it elsewhere.

The procedure can add volume, fix problems or defects from other procedures, provide reconstruction, and cover up scarring or other irregularities.

Procedure Details

The structural fat grafting technique used at UPMC includes removing fat via gentle, manual liposuction from areas such as the buttocks, abdomen, or thighs. The suctioned fat is then specially processed, refined, and concentrated before being placed into the areas to be treated.

Structural fat grafting can be used on various parts of the body:

Breast

Augmentation: Structural fat grafting can improve the size and shape of your breasts and correct asymmetry.
Reconstruction: This is used after lumpectomy, mastectomy, or radiation therapy to improve the look, heal damaged skin, and more.
Tuberous chests: This aims to improve the look of a breast that was misshapen because of a congenital condition.
Male chest: Structural fat grafting for male chests can enhance pectoral muscles, remove excess fat in the chest area, or help correct sunken chests.

Upper/Lower Body

Liposuction repair: Structural fat grafting can address irregularities or dents that crop up after liposuction procedures or issues the previous procedure didn’t fix.
Body scarring: Fat can improve the look of the skin, addressing scars left behind by injury or procedure, burns, or sun damage.
Arms: This can provide enhancement or definition to your extremities and fix any defects left by injury or procedure.
Hands: This can improve thinning skin or noticeable veins and tendons on the back of your hands, resulting in a more youthful look.
Legs: This can provide enhancement or definition to your extremities and fix any defects left by injury or procedure.
Buttocks: This involves transporting fat to augment your buttocks, improving size, shape, and firmness.

Head, Neck, and Face

Head and neck reconstruction: Fat grafting can provide reconstruction after injury, surgery, burns, or other treatments. It can reshape areas on your head and neck.
Facial scarring: The procedure can improve scars and other imperfections left behind by acne and other conditions.
Upper eyelids, eyebrows, and temples: The procedure can fix hollowed-out eyelids and restore fullness around the eyebrows and temples.
Lower eyelids and cheeks: The procedure can fix hollowed-out eyelids or provide better definition in cheeks.
Neck, jaw, and chin: This can fix looseness or wrinkles on the neck and/or enhance the chin and jawline.
Nose: The procedure can enlarge the nose or fix irregularities, bumps, scars, or other defects.
Nasolabial and marionette folds and lips: This targets lines and wrinkles on the lower half of the face, including smile lines, smoker lines, and lack of lip fullness.

Foot

Foot pad: Fat grafting can alleviate foot pad atrophy, which occurs when the fat pads surrounding your foot bones break down over time, causing pain while walking and doing other activities.
Plantar fascia: The procedure promotes healing of chronic plantar fasciitis, which occurs when the plantar fascia, or the ligament on the bottom of the foot, gets strained or inflamed, causing small tears.

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