Fat grafting

Fat grafting operations are procedures during which fat is taken from one area of the body and transplanted to another. Thanks to the American surgeon Sydney Coleman, who developed and implemented new principles in fat harvesting and transplantation, the modern fat grafting procedure has become very popular. Long-term results have shown the effectiveness of this procedure not only in correcting body shapes, but also in providing a stunning rejuvenation result. The regenerative - stem cells contained in fat have a very positive effect on tissues, restoring them, and slowing down the aging process.

Fat grafting is most commonly performed on the face, as well as on the chest and buttocks.

How the procedure is performed:

Fat for transplantation is taken with a special syringe, not a machine. This is done in order to minimize the impact on the tissue and to keep it viable. The taken fat is specially prepared for transplantation - centrifuged, washed, etc. (there are several methods) to separate blood, decomposed fat and fluids. The fat tissue prepared in this way is transplanted to a new area of the body using a special syringe and cannula. The transplanted amount can vary from a few milliliters (face, hands) to several hundred milliliters (breasts, buttocks). Since modern methods allow for the transplantation of large amounts of fat tissue, which successfully takes root, breast shape correction with one's own fat has recently become increasingly popular. The main disadvantage of fat transplantation surgery is that not all of the transplanted tissue takes root. Although about 30-70 percent does. of transplanted tissue, and this is considered a good outcome, repeat procedures are common. Complications such as bleeding, calcifications, or infection are rare.

Dr. G. Papečkys's commentary

I was the first in Lithuania to start using the fat grafting procedure in 1996, fascinated by the methodology developed by French surgeon YG Illouz and perfected by US surgeon Sydney Coleman, the results obtained, the understanding of body aesthetics, and the philosophy of body aesthetics. At that time, synthetic fillers were not as popular as they are now. Previously, this method had many opponents, whose main argument was that fat does not take root. However, long-term experience and observations have shown that the opposite is true – fat takes root and remains forever, and the stem and regenerating cells in it have a very positive effect on the transplanted area: the skin remains clearer, without wrinkles, in other words, it does not age.

Recently, with the active development of stem cell science, it has been discovered that adipose tissue is one of the reservoirs of regenerating - stem cells - in our body. They perform this "rejuvenating" work. The amount of stem cells in adipose tissue is relatively small, it decreases with age, so a bank of stem cells isolated from fat has been installed in Lithuania, where you can store your own stem cells and later use them to treat various diseases and rejuvenation procedures. Currently, special devices are used to isolate and concentrate stem cells from adipose tissue. These are used to rejuvenate facial skin, treat trophic wounds, and scars. I was the first to perform such a facial rejuvenation procedure in Lithuania in 2011.

Personal experience

So, my personal experience in this field (more than 15 years), global practice and the latest scientific works on stem cells allow us to state that fat transplantation is one of the most effective long-term aesthetic procedures that restore a natural appearance. It is like a preventive measure, which is recommended to be performed from the age of 35, so that permanent changes occur more slowly, and some do not appear at all over the years.

Currently, fat grafting operations are widely used in other areas. Such procedures are used to correct body contours, in the breast, buttocks, and intimate surgery (penis shape correction, correction of the external female genitalia). It is very popular to perform two operations at once, during which fat is removed from deposits in undesirable areas (waist, hips, thighs, abdomen) and transplanted to another area of the body (for women, to the breasts, buttocks, forming a beautiful, oval shape; for men, to correct the shape of the muscles in the chest, upper arms, etc.). Thus, fat grafting is becoming the gold standard in aesthetic medicine and surgery, and regenerating SVF cells isolated from fat give hope that it will be possible to restore damaged organs.

Since 2016, a laboratory has been operating in Lithuania, where stromal vascular fraction (SVF) cells, which contain a concentrate of stem cells, are isolated from adipose tissue. SVF is used for facial rejuvenation, treatment of joint diseases and trophic ulcers. There is also a bank where the isolated SVF fraction can be stored indefinitely.