What is lipofilling?
Lipofilling – also known as fat grafting – is a procedure to fill parts of the face/body with your own body fat, instead of using chemical products or an implant. It is a very effective procedure, because it is not very invasive and it produces natural results. About 60% of the fat is permanent.
Procedure
The fat used for fat grafting can be taken from any part of the body, such as the abdomen or thighs, through liposuction, and will be injected where needed.
Fat grafting is usually performed under local anesthesia. If it is combined with other procedures, it is usually performed under general anesthesia. The method used by Dr. Bert Oelbrandt is called the Coleman method.
- Liposuction — The fat used for re-injection into the face/body can be taken from any part of the body where there is sufficient fat through liposuction. Most commonly, the fat is taken from the abdomen or thighs. After injecting local anesthesia, which minimizes bleeding in this specific area, a very small incision is made and fat is aspirated using a blunt needle with multiple holes and a special suction device. The small incision is closed with one suture.
- Filtration — This fat is filtered to separate blood, oil, and local anesthetic from the fat cells.
- Fat Injection — The area where more volume is desired is injected with a minimal amount of local anesthetic, after which the fat cells are injected with very fine injection needles.
- The trick is to inject only a very small amount of fat with each movement of the injection needle. In this way, the transplanted fat will be in direct contact with the surrounding tissues and the fat in the blood vessels will be able to grow very quickly. This allows the fat to survive.
- About 50% of the fat is permanent. Therefore, the surgeon takes measures to compensate for the volume loss due to overinjection.
- This is an example of what a fat injection into the lips looks like:
- After six months we can see the end result because normally not much changes after that. It is still unknown how the transplanted fat will behave in the coming years/decades. However, it is likely that the normal aging process continues and the fat slowly disappears. On the other hand, we also expect that the difference the transplant makes will last a very long time.
- Repeat — After 6 months, if necessary, another fat graft can be performed until the desired effect is obtained. Repetition is necessary for approximately 50% of our patients.
Recovery
- Swelling — Immediately after surgery, the skin will be quite swollen and bruised. After about 3 weeks, about 80% of the bruising and swelling will have disappeared. After 4 months, you can get a good impression of what the final result (after 6 months) will be. About 7 to 10 days after surgery, you can go outside with confidence and resume your social life. If there were bruises, they may remain visible for a little longer, but you can hide them quite well with a good concealer if desired.
- Exaggeration — At first, the correction may seem a bit exaggerated. We usually overcorrect, which means that we inject more fat than necessary. We do this because approximately 40% of the transplanted fat cells do not survive. The final result can be seen after 6 months.
- Correction — A second session may be scheduled to replace any volume deficit. Fat cell survival depends on many factors. Your body naturally reabsorbs fat, so the surgeon must over-inject initially, and success rates can vary widely. However, some fat cells are reabsorbed by the body and sometimes only a certain percentage are permanent, although newer techniques are showing increasing longevity.
- If you gain weight in the future — If you gain weight significantly in the future, it may show up in the treated areas.