Liposculpture

Facial Surgery

Liposculpture

Micro fat transfer facial filler / Autogenous fat transfer / lipoaugmentation

This is an exciting innovation – Mr Blackburn was the first surgeon to introduce this to Manchester Royal Infirmary and Spire Cheshire hospital in 2014. It involves semi-permanent, transfer of your own fat tissue from your abdomen / thighs to the face to increase and sculpt the volume of the face.

The fat is harvested with aseptic technique with sterile liposuction apparatus under general anaesthesia, processed via a multi-step method including washing the harvested cell suspension before carefully injecting the required volume of fat tissue into the face.

Mr Blackburn has studied a set of his outcomes at Manchester Royal Infirmary which were presented at the European meeting in Munich in 2018, and then a further presentation at the EAFPS meeting in Amsterdam in 2019 – regarding volume of fat injected and volume of fat gained / retained. This was done using 3D superimposed digital facial photographs to calculate the change in facial volume. Patients in this series also reported significant improvement in quality of life using a validated quality of life questionnaire. This work is helping Mr Blackburn to better judge and refine a more scientific approach to judging the right amount to put in to the face for a sculpted outcome by accurately measuring results for his own technique on his own patients.

A few patients’ comments / testimonials are near the bottom of this page and cost information are available if you click on a separate Prices tab.


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Indications

Indications

The best results are gained in the malar triangles (mid-cheek to cheek bone area) where excellent cosmesis and improved skin tone can be achieved transferring a fat suspension –which contains a high concentration of stem cells and natural growth factors. The technique has been described and used for many facial zones and eye sockets. The recent development of micro fat harvest, washing and re-injection techniques has further refined this long established technique and for facial sub-specialists has replaced the older techniques for facial fat transfer which involved centrifuging the fat to separate out the fat layer. Cost information is shown at the bottom of this page.

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Limitations

Limitations

The fat transfer is followed by a degree of resorption of the transferred cells – these are living cells and not all of them will survive the transfer and take up a new blood supply in the new location. The amount of transferred fat that stays in the face ranges from as little as 5% up to 100% in the reported literature with an average of around 12-25%.

This means that a) sometimes more than one fat transfer may be required for the best results and b) a surgeon should be careful to assess their own outcomes to best match volume transferred to volume retained. Most patients have been satisfied with one transfer in my practice.

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Possible Complications

Possible Complications

Donor site – abdomen. Dimpling or contour deformity at the site of liposuction can occur. The small incisions for liposuction access form permanent scars. There is a risk of infection or bruising with any invasive procedure. There are very rare risk which have been reported in the literature. One is of blindness in one eye a due to a particle of fat entering a blood vessel then whizzing all around the blood system and then blocking the central retinal artery to one eye (you can imaging how rare / unlucky such a combination of events would be – but important to be aware of if e.g. you were already blind in one eye). A similar rare event is perforation of the bowel or intra-abdominal structures – which may suggest a lack of training or awareness of the correct liposuction technique on behalf of the surgeon.

Recipient site – the very small incisions for needle lipoaugmentation made at the junctions of cosmetic units form tiny scars. There is a risk of infection or bruising. The transferred fat may resorb (disappear) to a variable degree after treatment and further repeat procedure(s) may be required (see above under ‘Limitations’).

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2022 Prices

Liposuction under GA of small area e.g. under the chin / upper neck

£3970

Microfat transfer to liposculpture face (Lipoharvest and lipoaugmentation from abdomen to volumise / rejuvenate the cheeks / nasolabial folds of the face) GA

£5,953






    • Call Mr. Blackburn on 01925 215 008 or email stephanie.cartwright@spirehealthcare.com.

    • Consultation with Mr. Blackburn
      30 minutes: £230. Written information about procedure and aftercare, letter to patient / GP.

    • Preoperative assessment with nurse and doctor support. Cosmetic Surgery with ward care, removal of stitches + postoperative review consultations with Mr. Blackburn all included in the cost of surgery.

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