Skip to Content
800-533-8762
  • Careers
  • Newsroom
  • Health Care Professionals
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
UPMC
  • Find a Doctor
  • Services
    • Frequently Searched Services
    • Frequently Searched Services
      Allergy & Immunology Behavioral & Mental Health Cancer Ear, Nose & Throat Endocrinology Gastroenterology Heart & Vascular Imaging Neurosciences Orthopaedics
      Physical Rehabilitation Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery Primary Care Senior Services Sports Medicine Telemedicine Transplant Surgery Walk-In Care Weight Management Women’s Health
      See all Services
    • Services by Region
    • Find a UPMC health care facility close to you quickly by browsing by region.
      UPMC in Western Pa. Western Pa. and New York
      UPMC in Central Pa. Central Pa.
      UPMC in North Central Pa. North Central Pa.
      UPMC in Western Md. Maryland & West Virginia
    • See All Services
  • Locations
    • Locations by Type
    • Locations by Type
      UPMC hospitals
      Hospitals
      Physical Therapy
      Physical Therapy
      Urgent care
      Walk-In Care
      UPMC Outpatient Centers
      Outpatient Centers
      UPMC Imaging Services
      Imaging
      Community Health Centers
      Community Health Centers
      See All Locations
    • Locations by Region
    • Locations by Region
      UPMC in Southwest Pa. Southwest Pa.
      UPMC in North Central Pa. North Central Pa.
      UPMC in Northwest Pa and Ny. Northwest Pa. & Western N.Y.
      UPMC in West Central Pa. West Central Pa.
      UPMC in Central Pa. Central Pa.
      UPMC in Western Md. Maryland & West Virginia
    • See All Locations
  • Patients & Visitors
    • Patient & Visitor Resources
    • Patient & Visitor Resources
      Patients and Visitors Resources Pay a Bill Classes & Events Medical Records Health Library Patient Information
      Patient Portals Privacy Information Shared Decision Making Traveling Patients Visitor Information
      Man uses mobile phone
      Pay a Bill
      Nurse reviews medical chart
      Request Medical Records
  • Patient Portals
  • Find Covid-19 updates
  • Schedule an appointment
  • Request medical records
  • Pay a bill
  • Learn about financial assistance
  • Find classes & events
  • Send a patient an eCard
  • Make a donation
  • Volunteer
  • Read HealthBeat blog
  • Explore UPMC Careers
Skip to Content
UPMC
  • Patient Portals
  • For Patients & Visitors
    • Find a Doctor
    • Locations
    • Patient & Visitor Resources
    • Pay a Bill
    • Services
    • More
      • Medical Records
      • Financial Assistance
      • Classes & Events
      • HealthBeat Blog
      • Health Library
  • About UPMC
    • Why UPMC
    • Facts & Stats
    • Supply Chain Management
    • Community Commitment
    • More
      • Financials
      • Support UPMC
      • UPMC Apps
      • UPMC Enterprises
      • UPMC International
  • For Health Care Professionals
    • Physician Information
    • Resources
    • Education & Training
    • Departments
    • Credentialing
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
  • Newsroom
  • UPMC >
  • Our Services >
  • Plastic Surgery >
  • ... >
  • Services >
  • Regenerative Cell and Tissue Therapies >
  • Fat Grafting Treatments
Plastic Surgery
About Us
Services
Plastic Surgery Center
Gender Affirming Surgery
Hand Surgery Program
Hidradenitis Suppurativa Surgery Program
Life After Weight Loss Program
Nerve Disorder Center
Plastic Surgery After Cancer
Reconstructive Plastic Surgery
Regenerative Cell and Tissue Therapies
Making an Appointment
Preparing for Your Visit
Residency and Fellowships
Research & Clinical Trials
Our Experts
Patient Stories
Our Locations
Contact Us
Plastic Surgery
About Us
Services
Plastic Surgery Center
Gender Affirming Surgery
Hand Surgery Program
Hidradenitis Suppurativa Surgery Program
Life After Weight Loss Program
Nerve Disorder Center
Plastic Surgery After Cancer
Reconstructive Plastic Surgery
Regenerative Cell and Tissue Therapies
Making an Appointment
Preparing for Your Visit
Residency and Fellowships
Research & Clinical Trials
Our Experts
Patient Stories
Our Locations
Contact Us

Chat Keywords List

  • cancel or exit: Stops your conversation
  • start over: Restarts your current scenario
  • help: Shows what this bot can do
  • terms: Shows terms of use and privacy statement
  • feedback: Give us feedback
Continue
Chat with UPMC
RESTART
MENU
CLOSE

Fat Grafting Treatments

Fat grafting, also known as fat injection or fat transfer, is a safe, long-lasting procedure that produces natural-looking results. The procedure involves extracting fat from a fatty area, such as your thighs, and injecting it into another area in the body that may be lacking in volume, such as your face, breasts, buttocks, or feet. Fat grafting can address a variety of issues, including correcting deformities left from previous surgeries, reducing signs of aging, and decreasing foot pain.

What Is Structural Fat Grafting?

In structural fat grafting, the doctor gently and manually removes fat via liposuction from one or more areas of the body. The fat then goes through processing to remove unwanted materials, isolating the living fat and associated stem cells. The surgeon then carefully places the processed fat in its new location. Structural fat grafting can augment the breast and buttocks, correct irregularities or deformities, or provide a more naturally shaped body.

Fat Grafting Procedures

UPMC’s plastic surgery team performs a variety of fat grafting procedures on many different parts of the body.


  • 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.
  • 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 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 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.

Meet Our Fat Grafting Experts

UPMC’s team of plastic surgery experts includes:

J. Peter Rubin, MD: Dr. Rubin is the chair of the UPMC Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and co-director of the UPMC Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Center. Board-certified in plastic surgery, Dr. Rubin co-founded UPMC’s Life After Weight Loss program. In addition to his work at UPMC, Dr. Rubin is renowned worldwide for his work in plastic and reconstructive surgery. He served as president of the International Fat Applied Technology Society, a group of international scientists studying the use of discarded fat for stem cells. He also works on the American Society of Plastic Surgery’s Bariatric Task Force, which creates safety guidelines and educational programs. Dr. Rubin has received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, a prestigious honor for young researchers. His research includes leading a U.S. Department of Defense-sponsored study of regenerative treatment; and the effects of large-volume liposuction on metabolism. A widely published author, he is editing a textbook on post-bariatric plastic surgery.

Sydney Coleman, MD: Board-certified in plastic and reconstructive surgery, Dr. Coleman assists with structural fat grafting. The procedure harvests fat from one or more areas of the body through liposuction and places it elsewhere. The procedure can enhance, augment, or shape several different areas of the body. It also can help fix scarring, dents, and other skin irregularities. Dr. Coleman is a member of several national plastic and reconstructive organizations, including the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, and the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Dr. Coleman is a widely published author and frequent national lecturer on the topic of fat grafting.

Jeffrey Gusenoff, MD: Dr. Gusenoff is a board-certified plastic surgeon at UPMC and a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He was founder and director of the University of Rochester Medical Center Life After Weight Loss program and was director from 2008-12. He also is a widely published author on body contouring, including techniques, safety, and social issues. He researched and pioneered the foot fat grafting procedure in collaboration with Beth Gusenoff, DPM. They led a two-year study on the procedure, which harvests fat from elsewhere on the body and places it in the foot to relieve pain caused by certain conditions. The minimally invasive procedure combines methods of plastic surgery and podiatry.

UPMC
200 Lothrop Street Pittsburgh, PA 15213

412-647-8762 800-533-8762

Patients And Visitors
  • Find a Doctor
  • Locations
  • Pay a Bill
  • Patient & Visitor Resources
  • Disabilities Resource Center
  • Services
  • Medical Records
  • No Surprises Act
  • Price Transparency
  • Financial Assistance
  • Classes & Events
  • Health Library
Health Care Professionals
  • Physician Information
  • Resources
  • Education & Training
  • Departments
  • Credentialing
Newsroom
  • Newsroom Home
  • Inside Life Changing Medicine Blog
  • News Releases
About
  • Why UPMC
  • Facts & Stats
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Community Commitment
  • Financials
  • Supporting UPMC
  • HealthBeat Blog
  • UPMC Apps
  • UPMC Enterprises
  • UPMC Health Plan
  • UPMC International
  • Nondiscrimination Policy
Life changing is...
Follow UPMC
  • Contact Us
  • Website/Email Terms of Use
  • Medical Advice Disclaimer
  • Privacy Information
  • Active Privacy Alerts
  • Sitemap
© 2025 UPMC I Affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences Supplemental content provided by Healthwise, Incorporated. To learn more, visit healthwise.org
Find Care
Providers
Video Visit
Portal Login