Should I Get Buttock Implants If A Fat Injection Surgery Was Unsuccessful?

Q:  I am very interested in buttock implants. I was initially treated with fat grafting and spent a lot of money but the results did not last. This is why I don’t trust fat grafting and won’t do it again. I was greatly disappointed when I looked the same 3 months after the procedure. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

A: The choice between using your own tissues (fat grafting) versus an implant for augmentation of any body area can be a difficult one. The advantages and disadvantages of either approach are classic and predictable. A synthetic implant will produce a stable amount of augmentation but at the price of more invasive surgery and the risks of infection, seroma, implant migration and extrusion. Conversely, fat injection grafting has none of these risks but its volume retention and predictability of a long-term augmentation result is variable. In some cases, the results of fat grafting can be completely resorbed within a few months. For others, a second fat injection surgery is needed to get the desired augmentation volume.

Whether fat injections or an implant is best for anyone’s buttock augmentation starts first with the size and shape of one’s buttocks and what one’s end goal is. For some, the size of the buttocks one wants is very big and they have little to start with so an implant would be best. For others, their buttock size goal is more modest and they have something to work with from the beginning. For them, fat injections would be a good choice. If one has no significant fat to harvest on the abdomen, flanks or thighs, then implants will need to be used.

If you have had one unsuccessful fat injection surgery, then buttock implants become more appealing. You might feel differently if some of the fat from the first surgery survived. 

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana