Last month, I attended the American Society of Plastic Surgeons Annual Meeting in Chicago. I had some fun sightseeing, going on a food tour, and even seeing the start of the Chicago Marathon. But for a confirmed Plastic Surgery nerd like me, the most entertainment was to be found inside the meeting.
There was nothing I would call earth shattering in the lectures – just refinements of what we all have been doing. The hottest topic, however, was FAT. Orthopods have bone, cardiologists have the heart, and pulmonologists the lungs… but the Plastic Surgeon’s medium is skin and fat. Fat grafting (removing fat from one part of the body and injecting it into another) use to be a low yield endeavor and was even condemned for breast. Now, many surgeons are fat grafting the central face during every facelift. Fat is being added not just to breast cancer reconstructions but also to enhance breast implants and even large volume fat only augmentations are being performed.
I have been fat grafting for about 7 years now and patients have been happy with their improvements with this very technique dependent surgery. Fat is not a panacea for every problem and not everyone has the right fat consistency or volume for optimal results. So, if I tell a patient that they have “good fat,” that is meant as a complement.
I also made a technology purchase that I will introduce in the near future, hopefully in the next blog.
Mark D. Wigod, MD, FACS, providing cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgery to Boise, Meridian, Treasure Valley and Southeastern Idaho.
