fat transplantation cannot cure pectus excavatum

  Fat-injection is one of the most common operations in aesthetic surgery. Surgeons squeeze out fat tissues from the patient’s belly, upper arm, and thighs using a special apparatus. This apparatus is a sort of injector with thick needles. The fat tissues are injected into other parts of the body (mainly, women’s breasts). This sort of operation is easy to conduct and requires neither high-level surgical skills nor costly facilities. So, lots of cosmetic surgeons conduct fat-suction and fat-injection at their private clinics.

 Some surgeons boldly advertise “We cure pectus excavatum with fat injection.” However, this is a prime example of hyperbole. Solely performing fat injection doesn’t satisfy most patients with pectus excavatum. It is surely true that usually the greatest concern of pectus excavatum patients is their chest shape. However, it isn’t their sole concern. Besides the appearance of the chest wall, they are very often troubled by occasional chest pain, breathlessness, and easy fatigue. These symptoms are caused because their hearts are pressed by their chest walls. The symptoms never disappear even if the appearance of the chest wall is improved to some extent by the injection of fat. 

 Nevertheless, many patients visit private aesthetic clinics, lured by their gorgeous advertisements. When the patients go to such private clinics, surgeons strongly encourage patients to receive a combined operation of fat-suction (from the belly) and fat-injection (to the breast). The surgeon charges fees for both fat-suction and fat-injection. Usually, the total fee amounts to 5,000 to 20,000 dollars. 40 to 60 percent of the fee is paid to the surgeons. Thus, fat injection is a very lucrative operation for such surgeons.  

 I think patients should be more careful about receiving fat injection. However, I don’t totally reject fat injection, because it can be an effective maneuver in limited conditions. For instance, unevenness might persist even if the chest wall is elevated with pectus excavatum surgery. Injection of fat tissue is effective in smoothing the contour of the chest wall.