Post-Operative Care

            The patient is allowed to recover for 1 week without any pressure on her breasts, and no use of bras. The only compression garments that will be required are for the liposuction areas, usually a legs compression garment, and an abdominal binder. The compression garments are used for a total of 8 weeks after surgery. At postoperative day 5-7 the patient will start to use a post operative breast splint to immobilizing and mold your breasts. The splint is adherent to your breasts, it is a rigid splint that maintains the expanded state of your breasts (now grafted with fat) to prevent the skin envelop from deflating and contracting. The split is utilized for 6-8 weeks to make sure that the expanded skin envelope does not contract and place undo pressure on the fat grafted, which will result in the loss of our grafts (photos of patient with post operative splint).

What to Expect?

            One must remember that every patients is different, and results vary. The first week after your procedure you will feel soar (just like after a hard workout that you have not done in awhile) all over the areas of liposuction. You will feel pressure around your breasts from the added volume, but no sharp pains. Some of the physiologic fluid that was infiltrated for the liposuction will continue to leak from the small holes, which is completely normal.

You will be swollen at the liposuction sites, your legs and feet, and your breasts. The areas of liposuction as well as your breasts will have some degrees of bruising, and typically within the next 3-4 weeks the bruising and swelling will go away.

Your breasts right away will look significantly larger, feel heavier, and will have some irregularities such as skin folds around the medial and lateral aspects of your breasts, and some lumpiness. However, over the course of 6-8 weeks, the edema will go away, some of the fat will be absorbed, and the irregularities will disappear. This is normal, and typically around week 8 you will see your final results.

Possible Complications of Fat Transfer

Complications after fat transfer to the breast, whether the surgery is for cosmetic reasons, or for reconstruction are minimal. Looking at the largest series of patients published in the literature:

  • No infectious complications
  • One pneumothorax (<1%) described
  • Two cases of skin necrosis
  • Palpable masses (rare)
  • Fat Necrosis (rare)
  • Oil/Lipid Cysts (rare)

Complications after implant breast augmentation or reconstruction.

  • Asymmetry
  • Possible Breast feeding problems
  • Breast droopiness (ptosis)
  • Calcium build-up in scar tissue around the breast implant
  • Capsular contracture leading to pain and deformity of your breasts
  • Rupture or Deflation of the implant, which leads to saline or silicone
  • Palpation and visibility of your implants
  • Rippling or wrinkling of the implant under your skin
  • Extrusion of the implant
  • Hematoma
  • Pneumothorax (2%)
  • Implant migration or malposition leading to distortion of your breasts
  • More surgery for implant removal due to multiple reasons (as high as 30%)
  • Infection
  • Skin and nipple/areola necrosis (1%)
  • Decrease sensation on your nipples or breasts
  • Poor scarring with keloids or hypertrophic scars.
  • Seroma, which can be early or late. Late seromas have been associated with anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL). The FDA has reported that there is an association between implants and ALCL.
  • Swollen or enlarged lymph nodes. There is an association with implants and connective tissue/ autoimmune diseases.
  • Thinning of the skin and breast tissue atrophy due to pressure from the implants