Liposuction for fat transfer was first used over 100 years ago

Liposuction for fat transfer was first used over 100 years ago. The procedure was performed for the sole purpose of using the patient's own natural cushioning tissue to fill in her cheek where a tumor had been removed; it left a sunken space that the doctor believed he could safely fill. Today the same ideas about fat transfer have become far more refined; patients want to use their own fat to fill in the features on their bodies where they cannot genetically gain more muscle or fat volume. Instead of complaining about one's excess pounds, patients can get some fat removed from one unwanted area and use some of that fat to plump up another. Patients want it transferred to their lips, cheeks, breasts, buttocks and even their hands.

Liposuction is the surgical process of adding diluted anesthesia under a patient's skin or liquefying the patient's body fat over the abdomen, buttocks, thighs or upper arms in order to drain it with cannula, vacuum like tubes, or by allowing it to drain through small incisions throughout the target area. For fat transfer, the fat would still need to be in a semi-solid state in order to capture it and place it into the proper syringe-like tool for repositioning.

A great majority of the patients who receive this reuse of their own body fat seek to use it on their face, hands, or feet. The face is very common because as women age, they lose volume and tone they can see the benefit of using their own body fat from liposuction to recapture a fuller and more youthful face. This is particularly common with women who naturally have extremely low body fat; these women are athletic, have had a thin body type their whole lives, have lost a large amount of weight, or have a genetic predisposition to just having a thin face. Pockets of sagging skin or lowered muscles can create unappealing shadows that the ladies would like to have filled; therefore, their surgeon will use a small amount of her own body fat from her concurrent liposuction surgery to provide a long lasting fullness to the forehead, temples, or cheeks.

Some patients are even opting for a small amount of fat to be smoothed under the skin of the upper side of their hands and underside of their feet. For the hands, it prevents that bony, sunken look that happens as we lose natural cushioning there. The same thing goes for the feet, the more time a woman spends walking and standing in heels the more she'd appreciate a boost in natural cushion to the soles of her feet.

A fat transfer doesn't always have to accompany one's liposuction and not every surgeon is familiar with the process or equipped to do so. It's just an economical way to redistribute your assets all in one procedure.