For more than a century surgeons have used fat to enlarge the breasts and improve their shape, with various methods and mixed results. From the 1980s, with the arrival of liposuction, scientific papers on autologous fat grafting multiplied. The technique sparked a long debate about its safety until, in 1987, the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons unanimously advised against it. The reasons were that most of the grafted fat did not survive and that the body responds to dead cells by forming calcifications, which could make it harder to diagnose breast cancer. For several years fat grafting to the breast became taboo.
However, other studies of the same period showed that calcifications are also common after breast reduction and breast augmentation, and those operations were not banned. Today, with better diagnostic techniques, radiologists can reliably distinguish malignant calcifications from benign ones caused by previous breast surgery. This makes it possible to use fat grafting safely. Harvesting, preparing and grafting the fat follow well-established rules.
Autologous fat grafting can be used for purely aesthetic reasons, such as increasing volume, correcting asymmetries or deformities, correcting rippling after breast augmentation, or as an aid to reconstructive surgery. Performed correctly, the technique appears to be entirely safe.