What percentage of fat survives?

Most lay people and most plastic surgeons still rate the fat grafting procedure by the percentage of fat graft that survives the transfer. Unfortunately how much of the grafted fat remains viable, or the percentage graft survival is not a very relevant measure of success. Since the goal is to enlarge the mastectomy defect in order to grow a new breast mound, the more relevant yardstick of success is percentage augmentation of the grafted site. And it is the relative augmentation, not the absolute number that matters. Because 200ml volume gain in a 400ml recipient, a 50% augmentation, is not the same as 200ml in a 50ml mastectomy defect site, a much more difficult to achieve 400% augmentation. It is the percentage augmentation per grafting session what ultimately counts, regardless of the amount of fat injected. Experience shows that even in the best hands and with the best techniques, that percentage is rarely above 50%. It is only after we significantly enlarge the recipient site by external vacuum expansion (EVE) that we can reach the doubling effect (100%). This is what we will strive for each of your grafting sessions at the Miami Breast Center.