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Facial Fat Grafting: Why, Where, How, and How Much

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  • Facial Surgery
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Abstract

Although the importance of volume loss in the aging face is now well recognized and fat grafting has increasingly become an integral part of contemporary facelift procedures, general acceptance of the fat grafting technique is a relatively recent occurrence and many surgeons reluctance to adopt the technique can be traced back in part to questions they have as to how loss of volume contributes to how the face ages, how to specifically recognize those changes, and questions they have about how to perform the fat grafting procedure to correct them. In this article we attempt to answer the questions “why perform facial fat grafting during facelift procedures?”, “where should fat be placed in the face?”, “how should fat be injected?”, and “how much should be injected in each area?”.

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Fig. 1

Procedure performed by Timothy Marten, MD, FACS – reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 2

Procedure performed by Timothy Marten, MD, FACS – reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 3–4

Reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 4

Reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 5

Reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 6

Reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 7

Procedure performed by Timothy Marten, MD, FACS – reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 8

Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 9

Procedure performed by Timothy Marten, MD, FACS – reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 10

Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 11

Secondary procedure performed by Timothy Marten, MD, FACS – reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 12

Reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 13

Procedure performed by Timothy Marten, MD, FACS – reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 14

Procedure performed by Timothy Marten, MD, FACS – reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 15

Reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 16

Reprinted with permission of the procedure performed by Timothy Marten, MD, FACS – reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 17

 Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 18

Procedure performed by Timothy Marten, MD, FACS – reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 19

Reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 20

Reprinted with permission of the procedure performed by Timothy Marten, MD, FACS – reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 21

Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 22

Procedure performed by Timothy Marten, MD, FACS – reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 23

Reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 24

Procedure performed by Timothy Marten, MD, FACS – reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 25

Reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 26

Procedure performed by Timothy Marten, MD, FACS – reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 27

Reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 28

Procedure performed by Timothy Marten, MD, FACS – reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 29

Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 30

Procedure performed by Timothy Marten, MD, FACS – reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 31

Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

Fig. 32

Reprinted with permission of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery, 450 Sutter St, Suite 2222, San Francisco, CA, 94108, USA

    Timothy Marten & Dino Elyassnia

Authors
  1. Timothy Marten
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  2. Dino Elyassnia
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Timothy Marten.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Additional information

Portions of this article were reproduced from the chapter entitled “Simultaneous Facelift and Fat Grafting” that appeared in the book “Aesthetic Rejuvenation of the Face and Neck”, by BF Connell and MJ Sundine (Thieme, 2016). All figures, illustrations, tables, and descriptions of concepts, methods, and technique included in this chapter are courtesy of the Marten Clinic of Plastic Surgery and are used with permission.

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Marten, T., Elyassnia, D. Facial Fat Grafting: Why, Where, How, and How Much. Aesth Plast Surg 42, 1278–1297 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00266-018-1179-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00266-018-1179-x

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