Fat injections - a risky procedure.

The American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons (ASPRS) strongly condemns the use of fat injections for breast enlargement, warning that the procedure may hamper the detection of early breast cancer or result in a false-positive cancer screening. It also cautions that fat injections used to minimize wrinkles on the face or treat surface defects on other areas of the body may offer only temporary benefits.

In a fat transplant, unwanted fat is removed through a syringe or liposuction tube from one part of the body--usually the abdomen, buttocks, or thighs--and injected into another area that needs more fullness. With the increased popularity of anti-aging treatments, such injections have been heralded by some as the natural alternative to synthetic skin-plumping fillers, such as collagen, because they use the patient's own tissue and eliminate the risk of allergic reaction. However, the ASPRS is concerned that some practitioners are promoting the experimental procedure as a permanent cure-all without making patients aware that the results often are temporary and vary widely from person to person.

Furthermore, women who seek the procedure for breast enlargement sometimes are not informed that much of the injected fat will die, causing scar tissue and calcifications that can mask the presence of early breast cancer or cause a false-positive result. Calcification may take years to develop and, when it does, often mimics the appearance of breast cancer in a mammogram. In a worst-case scenario, a patient may face painful exploratory surgery or even a mastectomy because of an uncertain mammography examination result. Breast implants filled with saline (salt water) currently are the only widely available alternative for women seeking breast enlargement.

Although mammograms may be more difficult to read once implants are in place, skilled radiologists and technicians have learned special techniques for examining females who have them.

Although physicians have experimented with fat transplants since the 1890s, researchers still have not determined what causes the great variation in the duration of the results. There is no evidence that injecting fat into areas of the body other than the breasts poses any medical risk except...