Today, there is a definite butt implant alternative for buttock augmentation. Even though I have been placing buttock implants for well over a decade, I do feel that the advances in fat harvesting techniques have made the use of butt implants obsolete.
Traditionally, butt implants were recommended for patients who were felt not to have adequate body fat. This recommendation requires appreciating fat harvesting dynamics.
Typically, a one to one volume of tumescent solution infiltration and subsequent aspiration is observed. This means that if we infiltrate 5L of the tumescent solution, we can expect to remove approximately a total of 5L of fat and fluids.
This removed fat and fluid is then processed to wash and remove the fluid prior to being grafted. Typically, 1/3rd to 1/4th of the total removed fat and fluid results in injectable fat. This means out of 5L we can expect approximately 1.5L of fat that can be used in the above case.
This fat is evenly grafted into each buttock with ½ the volume being injected into each buttock, i.e. 750cc into each buttock cheek. However, patients who are thin, typically lack fat donor volume.
For example, patients who have less than 10% of body fat is turned away by physicians as they are told that they lack adequate fat volume. Instead, they are advised to consider a butt implant alternative.
With the advent of ultrasound-assisted liposuction, fat harvesting has been revolutionized. This is because the VASER machine, the gold standard in ultrasound-assisted technology, is capable of harvesting up to 2 times more fat than traditional techniques. This is because of its proprietary capability to remove both superficials as well as deep fat.
This is in contrast to traditional liposuction, which was limited to the deep fat only. In the case of a patient with less than 10% body fat, their fat is limited to the superficial fat. Even though the superficial fat is not substantial, the use of 360 or circumferential liposuction using VASER technology, will allow for modest fat to be harvested.
What Is The Butt Implant Alternative?
As such, Brazilian Butt Lifts can be offered to athletic patients or those with less than 10% body fat as a butt implant alternative. Let us consider a case study involving a patient who has less than 10 to 5 % body fat. She will require 360 lipo with infiltration volumes of for example 5L.
However, unlike the routine patient where 1/3rd to 1/4th of the aspirate is realized as transferrable fat, low body fat patients will demonstrate 1/8th the body fat. So in the above example, we can expect to recover approximately 625cc of fat.
Although this is not a generous amount of fat, it will still provide over 300cc of transferrable fat into each buttock cheek. In a patient weighing less than 100 pounds and who possesses a small torso that is less than 5% body fat, 300cc of fat transfer to the buttock will appear generous.
In summary, a Brazilian butt lift is now a butt implant alternative procedure. With the advent of VASER technology, fat transfer can now be offered as a butt implant alternative to even the thin and/or athletic women.
Please appreciate this 44-year-old female following high definition liposuction 360 with BBL as a butt implant alternative.
