How Safe Is Fat Transfer To The Hips?
When dealing with hip augmentation, a doctor might suggest a fat transfer procedure, also known as fat grafting. During the surgery, liposuction is used in order for the surgeon to harvest fat tissue from other areas of your body and inject them in your hips. During the transfer, the fat tissue will be purified before inserted in your hips, and sometimes some of the fat deposits will not survive. This is why in some cases a second procedure will be needed. Not every patient qualifies for this type of augmentation as the patient needs to have significant fat tissue in the areas from which the tissue will be harvested. The procedure will last a few hours, depending on the amount of fat that needs to be transferred.
Liposuction is used in order for the doctor to be able to harvest the desired fat tissues. A fat transfer procedure has the same risks as liposuction. Major complications like organ puncture (especially when the fat is harvested from the abdomen), infection, allergic reactions to medication, and pulmonary embolism can occur during or after the procedure. Adding liposuction safety to the procedure will help us draw the line.
Benefits
Now if we are to compare hip implants with fat transfer hip augmentation, the fat transfer procedure will win by far. Fat transfer is always recommended before implants if the patient is a good candidate. The advantages include:
- You don’t need general anesthetic
A local anesthetic is much safer for the patient. With general anesthetic, higher risks are on the table.
As your volume will increase using your own fat, there are no rejection side effects involved.
Apart from major complications occurring during the procedure, most patients will not require hospitalization. Fat transfer procedure requires less invasive areas overall, so basically you will be ready to go home after the surgery.
Putting in balance the benefits and the low risks involved using liposuction, if we can grade safety from 1 to 10 (with one being the safest), a fat transfer hip augmentation will get an easy 2. There is nothing to worry about, as basically all the cosmetic surgeries are becoming safer with each passing day.