Fat Grafting Widely Used For Facelift Surgery

Over the last ten years, a technique called “fat grafting” has been utilized as part of operational facial rejuvenation surgery. The reason for this shift is due to the loss of volume many experience in particular areas of the face during the aging process.

While a limited incision facelift and/or traditional facelift can address the removal of redundant skin and repositioning of fat, the one thing it cannot execute is adding volume. And herein lies where fat grafting is beneficial for a more youthful transformation. 

A board certified plastic surgeon that specializes in facial surgery will use liposuction to harvest fat cells from an area of a patient’s body such as the abdomen or upper thighs for this special procedure.
Please note that the amount harvested is quite small and in no way resembles a body sculpting procedure. On average, the amount of fat gathered is around 10 to 25 cubic centimeters which averages out to two to four teaspoons.

As stated earlier, the procedure removes a patient’s fat from their own bodies in order to redeliver it to a facial feature which requires the need for more volume. For those familiar with fillers such as Voluma and Juvederm, the end goal of fat grafting is quite the same.
The areas where fat grafting can be utilized are the following:

• Cheeks
• Lower eyelids
• Nasolabial Folds
• Lips

Some San Diego plastic surgeons are also using a fat grafting procedure for breast reconstruction patients as well as buttocks augmentation. This technique is widely used in a variety of surgical applications. 

Another reason for its popularity is there are no allergic reactions since the fat is collected from a person’s own body.
The method for the fat harvesting is as follows:

• Determining an area on the body for harvesting
• Applying local anesthesia to the site area (this step may not be necessary if a patient is already under general anesthesia for an operative procedure)
• Harvesting fat via liposuction
• Purification process
• Autologous fat transfer
• Process of purification
• Delivery and transfer techniques 

Slowly and meticulously, the surgeon will deliver the fat to a site in an effort to enhance volume. This “transfer,” performed in small increments, will be recurring until the desired volume is achieved. 

In cases such as facelifts, this fat transfer is indeed incorporated with other microsurgical techniques.
Fat grafting is playing such an important role in facelifts. Recently there was a study published in an issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. This is a monthly medical journal published by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). 

A board certified plastic surgeon by the name of Dr. Sammy Sinno led the study, and a total of 309 ASPS member surgeons were part of the study. They took a survey regarding their utilization of fat grafting. 

The survey data showed that 85 percent of these doctors did implement fat grafting in their facelift procedures in San Diego. 

The quantitative survey indeed revealed that fat grafting is being performed by regarded ASPS member surgeons during operative facial rejuvenations because it’s addressing the issue of “volume” which cannot be corrected by a mere traditional facelift. 

Fat grafting is providing patients with optimal surgical results.