Buttock enhancement – what should you know?

The evolution of buttock enhancements has progressed rapidly thanks to the contributions of Drs. Constantino Mendieta, Simeon Wall, and Dan DelVecchio. These surgeons’ concepts have not only aided me in my execution of this procedure but have refined my skills in lipo-sculpting in general. This operation helps to allow women to better fit into clothing that is currently in vogue today by reshaping and enhancing the buttock region and providing sculpting of fat harvesting donor sites such as the back and bra lines, creating a sleek upper back and lateral breast profile. Utilizing a patient’s own fat, a surgeon must possess an excellent aesthetic eye with three dimensional analysis capabilities, visualizing a women’s torso just like a sculptor looks at a slab of marble to be able to bring forth a beautiful feminine form. Unlike carving stone through a subtraction technique alone, we are freeing fat from fibrous encasements, selectively removing the cells for grafting, and redistributing the volume from areas of relative excess to areas of deficiencies to provide a smooth contour. Conversely, a non-invasive contouring procedure such as CoolSculpting allows a surgeon no selective ability to perform differential reduction such as moving fat from areas of relative excess to areas of relative deficiencies and has no ability to encourage skin tightening.

I have been an avid incorporator of fat grafting in all areas of aesthetic surgery. Areas including eyelids, midface volume restitution in face lifts, breast enhancements with and without implants to sculpt a breast where an implant alone cannot, tends to revitalize the overlying skin, as well as any areas with significant soft tissue contour deformity. The buttock however is the largest in scope and volume of the fat grafting procedures I perform. One concept that has greatly improved my non-facial and hand fat grafting is the concept of Expanded Volume Lipofilling. This concept has led to faster more efficient and improved volume deposition particularly with breast and buttock region. Essentially I utilize the same oscillating headpiece and expanded tip cannula utilized in the fibrous tissue separation and fat equilibration to allow me to simultaneously vibrate and expand the soft tissue envelope and back fill in a constant flow manner to provide a smooth application of fat which can take on the desired shape. This technique also prevents, along with the surgeon’s skilled knowledge of the anatomy, the most dreaded complication of injecting inadvertently the large venous complex in the gluteal muscle which can lead to a fat emboli to the heart which in some cases has resulted in several deaths around the world. The vast majority of women I see for this procedure tend to lack volume in the lateral hip, the posterior and lateral thigh as well as the buttock itself. These areas need to be enhanced to yield a pleasing result which an implant into the gluteal region alone would not be able to provide. Fat grafting has far fewer complications compared to an implant and allows the adjacent tissues to be three dimensionally made coincident with the gluteal enhanced region giving a far more natural and aesthetically pleasing result. Combined with the liposculpting of the donor site areas, this procedure often results in a global torso reshaping providing the women a renewed confidence in her body with or without clothing.

Despite such a large area of involvement of the body during this procedure we are not violating any core muscles such as an abdominoplasty (tummy tuck) thus recovery is much quicker and, although global soreness is expected, most women resume normal activities within a few days to a week.

I hope this blog provides some insights into the thought process and execution of a buttock enhancement. It truly is a constellation of multiple processes in cutting edge liposculpting which very much resembles what an artisan must perform to create pleasing forms out of any medium he or she desires. This certainly requires great skills both innate such as three dimensional perception and an aesthetic judgement as well as an excellent knowledge of surgical anatomy to avoid fatal complications. Therefore I would be cautious to engage anyone else but a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon in this endeavor.

If you are interested in a consultation for body aesthetic surgery or more particularly buttock enhancement with Expanded Volume Lipofilling contact Dr. Jay H. Lucas, at The Lucas Center, Plastic Surgery in Knoxville, TN at 865 218 6210. www.Thelucascenter.com