The fat in our body can be extremely tricky - it tends to settle in troublesome places like the chin, belly, thighs, etc. and refuses to redistribute to areas where the extra volume would be a welcome addition. The immobility of fat can be extremely frustrating to patients, as even the most rigorous diet and exercise regimens may not yield their desired results.
Minimally-invasive surgical fat transfer gives you the power to banish unwanted pockets of fat and repurpose its contents to restore or enhance the natural contours of your face and body. This in-office procedure harvests fat from the sites most bothersome to you and subjects it to a rigorous purification process. The extracted fat can then be used to rejuvenate areas of the face that, due to the natural aging process, have lost its fullness or tightness. Alternatively, the purified fat may be transferred to the breasts or buttocks to lift and shape these areas according to your individual aesthetic goals.
Dr. Hooman Khorasani is a quadruple board-certified cosmetic surgeon who has spent over a decade helping patients achieve their ideal face and body through minimally-invasive relocation of stubborn fat pockets. This extensive experience combined with Dr. Khorasani’s commitment to surgical perfection directly benefits each individual patient, as your treatment plan is carefully customized to provide you with optimal cosmetic results.
To find out whether a fat transfer treatment can help facilitate your aesthetic goals, visit Dr. Khorasani at our New York City practice. To request a consultation, text message us securely, or contact our Manhattan office by phone at 212-230-3378.
Fat transfer or autologous fat grafting is the surgical redistribution of fat from areas like under the chin, belly, thighs, etc. to locations that would benefit from additional volumization. The fat harvesting sites are selected based on which regions will provide the maximum amount of body contouring while also producing enough fat for transplantation. Once the optimal donor sites are identified, localized liposuction is used to extract the fat cells. This fat is then extensively refined using a specialized system to remove any excess fluid, oils, and cellular debris. Once the fat has been sufficiently purified, it is carefully injected into the target area to provide volumization, shape, and lift.
Many of our patients opt for head-to-toe liposuction in combination with their fat transfer treatment to achieve their ideal face and body contour. Liposuction has been a staple of Dr. Khorasani’s decade-plus long career and he is proud to have helped thousands of patients look and feel their best through this minimally-invasive surgical procedure. Please visit our Liposuction page to determine if this highly effective surgical treatment can help you obtain your aesthetic goals.
Autologous fat grafting is a highly versatile treatment, as it uses the body’s own materials to naturally enhance and rejuvenate the target areas. Popular treatment sites on the face include the temples, cheeks, and deep wrinkles surrounding the eyes and mouth; however, Dr. Khorasani will tailor your facial fat transfer procedure to address your individual cosmetic concerns.
Facial fat pockets are important to maintain the shape and lift of your most prominent features, such as the temples and cheeks. Collections of fat are also important in preventing the formation of smile lines around the mouth and eyes. As we age, these beneficial fat reservoirs lose volume and shift downward to less desirable locations like under the chin and neck due to the constant pull of gravity. Overall, the loss and migration of these fat clusters can cause our face to develop deep wrinkles and become sunken or droopy in appearance.
A fat transfer facilitates the redistribution of fat from unwanted bulges on the body to specific facial zones like the temples, cheeks, or deep creases surrounding the mouth and eyes. Reinfusing fat into these target areas restores their natural lift and shape, resulting in a face that is smooth, tight, and more youthful.
Dr. Khorasani is committed to assisting each and every patient on their journey to achieving their aesthetic goals. Consequently, we offer a plethora of non-invasive restorative treatments for patients who may not be candidates for autologous fat grafting. Please visit our Face Contouring page to determine if these non-surgical therapies can help you look and feel your very best.
As with facial fat transfers, Dr. Khorasani will customize your body contouring procedure according to your specific aesthetic objectives. Most patients, however, choose to enhance the shape, size, and lift of their breasts or buttocks with a minimally-invasive fat transfer procedure.
Historically, patients desiring breast augmentation or rejuvenation had no other option but to undergo highly invasive surgeries to insert implants or remove excess skin. Aside from the substantial cost of these in-patient procedures, complications from general anesthesia and the implants themselves are rampant. Breast fat transfer has revolutionized this area of cosmetic medicine, as patients are now able to achieve their desired breast shape and size with minimal surgical intervention.
Procedures to enhance the buttocks were also previously limited to invasive surgeries and insertions of implants. With implants, there is the risk of the implant moving or the area getting infected. With autologous fat grafting, patients can volumize, shape, and lift their buttocks naturally. No implants or general anesthesia required!
Patients with limited fat reservoirs may benefit from a buttocks augmentation with Sculptra®, a poly-L-lactic acid filler. This safe, effective, and long-lasting injectable filler modifies the shape, size, and lift of the buttocks to compliment your body’s natural contours. Please visit our Buttocks Enhancement page to see if this non-invasive treatment can help you achieve your cosmetic goals.
This two-in-one treatment allows you to eliminate stubborn fat collections from the areas most bothersome to you while simultaneously enhancing locations you wish to volumize. The redistribution of fat in this comprehensive procedure results in maximal face and body sculpting that aligns with your aesthetic goals.
The cosmetic outcome of autologous fat grafting also looks and feels as natural as possible, since this procedure utilizes your body’s own organic materials. Additionally, transplantation of purified fat to the target area does not require a surgical incision. This prevents the formation of scars in these aesthetically prominent locations, which further enhances the natural appearance of your face or body sculpting results. Scars from breast augmentation with implants or buttocks implants are often very troublesome to patients and a frequent complaint in Dr. Khorasani’s scar clinic.
Other benefits of fat transfer treatment include the avoidance of facial or body implants, which require replacement every ten years and are associated with serious adverse effects such as contracture, infections and rare reported malignancies associated with some textured implants.
Furthermore, autologous fat grafting procedures in our office are traditionally performed in an outpatient setting using local injections of a numbing solution coupled with oral medications. This is in stark contrast to traditional body or face contouring procedures that are performed in an operating room, exposing you to additional financial costs and the risks of general anesthesia. However, for larger volume cases general anesthesia may need to be utilized in order to optimize your comfort and safety. Fat transfer procedures have a proven track-record of efficacy and safety, allowing patients to achieve their ideal cosmetic outcomes while avoiding unwanted complications.
Facial fat transfer is ideal for patients who have already had experience with facial volumization with Dr. Khorasani and wish to have more sustained results given the relatively short life span of facial filler. In Dr. Khorasani’s opinion, it's prudent to start with a non-permanent filler first in order to fine tune the mutually acceptable degree of enhancement. Once the patient is satisfied with the results with a non-permanent filler they may wish to graduate to something more permanent like a fat transfer.
The problematic loss and migration of facial fat begins in the early thirties; consequently, autologous fat grafting is an excellent preventative treatment for young patients wanting to prevent the onset of aging. Fat transfer in older patients can help revitalize depleted or displaced fat pads in the face, restore volume to the temple or cheeks and improve the appearance of deep wrinkles. Ideal candidates from both categories of patients are those seeking to remove large, bothersome fat pockets from another area of the body while simultaneously rejuvenating the face.
Since the beginning of his surgical career, Dr. Khorasani has dedicated himself to mastering liposuction and autologous fat grafting to ensure each patient is provided with optimal aesthetic results. This expertise is used to craft an individualized therapy plan that accounts for your specific health profile, lifestyle constraints, and overall cosmetic goals. We will work with you to find a treatment that best meets your needs!
Breast augmentation with autologous fat grafting is best suited for non-smoking patients with a healthy, stable weight seeking a mild to moderate increase in their breast size without invasive surgery. Fat transfer to the breasts can also be used to improve symmetry. This procedure is not ideal for patients with poor skin elasticity as it does not offer a breast lift. In order to improve skin laxity and lift, this procedure is often combined with Reunvion/J-Plasma which offers subdermal collagen tightening. Please visit our Subdermal Skin Tightening page to see if this treatment can help you achieve your cosmetic goals.
Patients with a personal or extensive family history of breast cancer are not candidates for this procedure. Before you schedule this procedure we do require that you obtain a baseline mammogram and an ultrasound of your breasts.
Enhancing the buttocks with a fat transfer procedure is most effective for individuals seeking to improve the size, shape, and lift of their posterior without surgical implants. Asymmetry or irregularities of the buttocks’ curvature can also be improved with autologous fat grafting.
Regardless of the fat transfer procedure chosen, patients must have unwanted fat pockets that are large enough to provide sufficient amounts of fat for transplantation. We offer a variety of non-surgical face and body contouring procedures for patients with limited fat reservoirs or those unable to tolerate liposuction. Please view our Facial Rejuvenation page and Buttocks Augmentation page to see if these non-invasive therapies can better facilitate your ideal face or body.
Harvesting fat from the donor site requires the creation of small entry sites (ports) to allow the liposuction device to reach under the skin’s surface. Each 2mm port site will be thoroughly numbed with an injectable anesthetic fluid to ensure maximum comfort. Following anesthetization, the liposuction cannula (a small, blunt tube) will be inserted under the skin to begin treatment. At this time, an anesthetic fluid is infused under the skin to homogenize, or breakdown, the fat. Using a precise level of suctioning power, Dr. Khorasani will extract all available fat from this area to eliminate your unwanted bulge in its entirety. Dr. Khorasani advocates the use of a very thin cannula under very low suction pressure in order to maximize the survival of the fat graft. This meticulous process requires more time, but offers a superior outcome.
The extracted fat is then extensively refined with a specialized system to remove all impurities. Once the fat has been sufficiently purified, the final product is drawn up into several sterile syringes. The target areas on the face or body are then numbed with injections of lidocaine to allow for a pain-free sculpting process. Dr. Khorasani will then carefully inject the purified fat to provide you precise volumization and lift that compliments your natural contours.
Depending on the size and number of areas to be treated, autologous fat grafting requires anywhere from three to eight hours to complete.
The meticulous numbing process during the harvesting and transplant stages will prevent you from experiencing pain; however, you may continue to feel pressure or tugging sensations as the fat is extracted and reimplanted. If at any time during the procedure the pressure or tugging becomes too uncomfortable, please inform Dr. Khorasani and he will provide you with additional measures to ensure your comfort. These include our in-office Pro-Nox system which employs nitrous oxide (“laughing gas”) to reduce anxiety and the experience of pain. Pro-Nox can be self administered by you as needed, to address any discomfort.
Your recovery experience is dictated by the size and number of locations treated. Patients undergoing comprehensive body sculpting from top to bottom or large volume liposuction will likely require two weeks to recover from the liposuction portion of the procedure. Those who opted to contour only a select few areas usually require less downtime.
Swelling and bruising of the donor and transplant site are expected, but it is more pronounced in the area from which the fat was extracted. These side effects typically resolve within two weeks; however, bruising diminishes significantly within five to seven days, such that patients who sculpted only one or two areas may be able to resume their normal activities within this time frame. It is important to understand that all patients heal differently. If the donor site of the fat removed is in the extremities such as the arms or legs, your swelling and bruising will likely last much longer. Even with large volume liposuction in these areas, you should still be able to return to work in a week, and exercise in two weeks. Please note that you will not be “beach ready” for a few months, but you will start to see your new shape emerge week over week, as your body recovers.
We understand this recovery time can be difficult. We encourage our patients to have a daily lymphatic massage starting on postoperative day three in order to reduce your healing time. Lymphatic massage significantly helps with post-operative swelling and will help you swiftly return to your regular schedule. Our office staff is available at any time during your recovery to discuss any of your concerns. We are always here for you!
The most challenging aspect of the fat harvesting (liposuction) recovery for most patients is the postoperative tissue swelling. The main reason for this is the fact that it is not possible to remove all the anesthetic fluid that is infused under the skin during your surgery. The majority of this fluid is taken out with the fat during the operation and some of the fluid is cleared by the kidneys and excreted in your urine during the first 72 hours. However, about 25% of this fluid remains in the tissue and requires the lymphatic system for clearance. Unfortunately, it takes a few months for the lymphatic system to resume normal function. Therefore, you should expect the following timeline for 100% of the fluid to dissipate:
Liposuction of the neck: 4 weeks
Liposuction of the abdomen: 16 weeks
Liposuction of the legs: 24 weeks
Although you will not need to stay overnight at a care facility it is extremely important that you have someone to help you the first 72 hours after your procedure. We work with some excellent, in-home nurses who can provide you with assistance during this time. This is particularly helpful for patients who live alone and wish to keep their recovery private.
Dr. Hooman Khorasani has developed a unique protocol in order to maximize the survival of fat grafts. Not all fat cells can withstand transplantation and on average only around 65% of these fat cells will survive the transfer. Dr. Khorasani’s protocol includes suctioning at a much lower pressure than traditional liposuction in order to minimize trauma to the cell membranes. Additionally, he optimizes survival by using a much smaller suction cannula than most other surgeons performing this procedure. A smaller cannula translates to a larger graft to surface area ratio and therefore, better blood supply to your tissue. This means there is a better chance of the fat surviving the transfer. Using smaller cannulas under low pressure significantly increases the procedure time, but it is absolutely worth the extra effort and time, as it provides an optimal environment for fat cell survival.
Dr. Khorasani is quadruple board-certified in Dermatology, Cosmetic Surgery, Facial Cosmetic Surgery and Mohs micrographic surgery. Additionally he led the Division of Dermatologic and Cosmetic Surgery at Mount Sinai for 10+ years. He has helped numerous patients achieve their aesthetic goals through minimally-invasive liposuction in combination with autologous fat grafting. Always in pursuit of perfection, Dr. Khorasani is constantly investigating, implementing, and mastering innovative surgical techniques to provide you with optimal face and body contouring.
Capitalizing on his internationally recognized surgical proficiency, Dr. Khorasani carefully crafts a therapy plan for each patient that adheres to the highest standards of medical care and is optimized to produce the greatest results possible. Personalization is infused into every aspect of our practice, from the treatment itself to our highly-skilled office personnel that are available 24/7 to answer any questions or concerns. Together as a team, we can help transform your aesthetic goals into reality.
Dr. Khorasani and his highly-specialized team look forward to working with you to transform your medical or aesthetic goals into reality. To expedite a request for a consultation, message us securely, or contact Dr. Khorasani’s Manhattan office by phone at 212-230-3378. For more information about how to get in touch:
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