Hi there, I’ve had mastectomy on left and right breasts with LDF and a small implant. I have a flat area on my right breast clevege where lump was so am having lipofilling done on 5th August. Surgeon is taking fat from my thighs. I was not asked to take any support garments in to hospital with me. Can anybody advise me please?
Bumping up for fitgirl and Tiny Tina
Thanks CheshireCheese 
I would love to hear any updated info from anyone who has had this stem cell enriched lipofill process. Anyone out there please? I am due to see someone on Friday who does this procedure and would be very pleased to be better informed before the consultation.
Hi, I had three lipofills now to even out the LD recon no implant. There has been considerable reabsorbtion and I won’t do any more. Different surgeons use different methods of preparing the fat for injection with differing results. Good luck with your appointment! X
Hi Tina
Thanks for replying. Did you have the stem cell enriched lipofill or the conventional sort? From what I’ve read it’s quite common to need 2 or 3 goes with the conventional lipofill, which is what I’m hoping to avoid if I can go for the stem cell enriched version.
There was a small number of people on these forums who had been included in the trials for the stem cell procedure - are any of you still on the forums and could let us know how you are getting on a year or so after you had it done?
I’ve only had one lipofilling operation and that wasin July this year. It was the conventional type. Initially I was pleased but over time there has been a lot of reabsorbtion. The initial intention was to have 2 or 3 to get a better shape but like Tina46 I don’t think that I’ll bother with any more. I don’t cope well with the anaesthetic so don’t want to put myself through it again. My surgeon didn’t seem to think that the cell enriched lipofill was any better than the conventional type. That may be because they only had the equipment to do the conventional type as the kit for the cell enriched was far more expensive. I do know that it has worked well for some ladies.
All three of my Ops were with different methods, centrifuged, stem cell enriched and sieved. The success considering the pain&recovery is for me, probably small. I also started to feel the effects of the GAs (in total six ops in 22 months) but I thought I will go with the three ops as planned. The reabsorbtion seemed the same for the first two methods, my third was last week so it’s wait&see for a few months. It’s early days yet for this procedure I am sure over time a methods will prove more successful.
Hi Cadi & Tina
Thanks for the feedback. My thoughts are on the same lines as yours - if the fat keeps being reabsorbed so the process needs repeating several times, I don’t think I could face that. If it’s just done once and then finished with it would be worthwhile but I couldn’t face that much pain and anaesthetic over again.
P.S. Which hospital did your treatment?
Yes, committing to several ops is a big task, I must admit I came quite close to cancelling my last one, but went ahead hoping the last one would do the trick! My hospital hires the equipment as opposed to it being purchased by the PCT, and the surgeon has a list of several lipofill ops that day.
I had to pay for my lipofill because at the time they didn’t have the equipment at York hospital. I believe that the kit was hired for that occasion. I was recently told that they have now purchased the equipment at York hospital.
Just in case anyone else out there is considering lipofill and its variations:
I’ve now had appointments with two different plastic surgeons, and it was interesting to find out how completely different their approach was, both towards me and to the possible solutions to my problem.
PS No 1 was arrogant, seemed to think that the appointment was for a lecture rather than a consultation, and was very much in favour of implants as the simplest solution (funnily enough he works closely with 2 implant manufacturers!). He advised against fat implants into the healthy breast, and reckoned that the stem cell procedure has no greater success rate than conventional. I began to suspect that his lack of skill or experience in this procedure may have been influencing his opinion. In fact he didn’t even mention the stem cell version until I asked about it, despite the fact that I knew my breast surgeon’s referral letter to him had specifically said that that was what I was interested in. But he did say he could refer me onto the lady that I was already planning to see - PS No 2 - since she is leading the UK trials in this.
PS No 2, who is a specialist in breast reconstruction after cancer, treated me as an intelligent adult and had booked a one hour appointment for me as a new patient. She explained in great detail what she could and couldn’t do for me, and why, and what the pros and cons are. She said that conventional lipofill into a healthy breast works quite well because the blood supply is good. The breast that has had rads is more difficult because the rads damage the blood supply, so the fat graft is less likely to “take” and it is more difficult to get a decent volume of fat in because the tissue is stiffer. Hence she recommended the stem cell enriched fat graft for my BC breast, to improve the chances of the fat establishing a good blood supply. She warned me that it is likely to take two goes to get my BC breast up to a decent size and shape, but the healthy breast should only need one, with the aim of getting both to a matching size about one cup larger than I am now, which is the max that can be done. She also explained how they calculate what volume of fat they need to take to provide the necessary volume. In my case about 1.2 litres which is not a problem for me, she can get that easily off my belly! It’ll be quite sore for 2 weeks and bruised for 6 weeks, plus you have to wear firm support bras and stomach compressing big knickers for around 6 weeks. My OH can’t wait to see those!
I felt confidence in PS No 2 so I’m intending to go ahead with her recommended treatment in the new year.
If others out there are interested in what it entails, I’ll keep posting updates.
Hi CC,
Yes I’d be glad to know updates. I am due lipofill in the Midlands early in the New Year. Only to one side, where the WLE scar is and I was also told it could take two or three goes. Other than that I don’t know much about it… xxx
This has been interestign reading. I’ve visited a plastic surgeon to see about reconstruction but don’t think this was mentoned. Standard recon from tummy. he did yawn all the way through the appointment so I’ve not progressed any further yet… Not sure what to do next as do want recon but not looking forward to an op or several.
Hi Mary Grace
If they’re saying it could take 2 or 3 goes, that sounds like conventional lipofill? Which I believe is quite often done to fill in a dent left after WLE.
And Hi to Summer11 as well
I may be in a different situation to you since I had therapeutic mammaplasty, i.e. a WLE combined with a breast reduction and lift, which was then followed up with a similar mammaplasty to the healthy side. So I have a sort of matched pair, which I would like to get just a bit bigger but a much better shape to suit my build. If you’ve had a mastectomy then your possible options may be different.
Hi CC, Just a quick update. Waiting for a date for the first go at this. I’ve been told it will be before beginning of April and should find out the date in the next week. I guess it will be conventional as no one talked about other versions and the hospital has only recently started doing this.
I am taking the view that, even if the fat reabsorbs, the end result is likely to be better than it is now and I will probably go for the second attempt but will reserve judgement on three until I see the results.
Those who have had more than one of these, what is the gap likely to be between the surgeries ie: how long does it take to see how much reabsorbs? xx
Hi Mary Grace
And now a quick update from me! I’ve finally got a date booked for my lipofill - 26th March. I’m not looking forward to it, but I’m looking forward to seeing the results.
Anyone got an answer to Mary Grace’s earlier question:
“Those who have had more than one of these, what is the gap likely to be between the surgeries ie: how long does it take to see how much reabsorbs?”
It would be very useful to know.