Lipofilling Safe for Mastectomy Patients
Women who have fat graft injections or lipofilling after mastectomies face no greater risk of disease recurrence than those who do not undergo lipofilling, according to a recent study by European plastic surgeons.
Following surgery, many cancer patients are left with severely damaged skin and tissue. Lipofilling is a specialized fat grafting surgical procedure in which aspirated (liposuction) fat tissue is first taken from a donor site. Typical donor sites are the abdomen or flanks. Then it is centrifuged, treated and injected into the breast. The fat grafts naturally contain a population of adipose cells and the regenerative properties of the cells are particularly beneficial in healing tissue damaged by radiation.
Fat grafting is a less invasive technique to fill the void of tissue loss in reconstruction of the breasts. Liopfilling offers women another choice and it is a technique that does not require immediate action following a mastectomy.
