SAFETY OF LIPOFILLING AS A SECONDARY PROCEDURE IN BREAST RECONSTRUCTION

Lipofilling is a useful surgical technique for breast reconstruction following cancer surgery. It has a unique place in the correction of both lumpectomy and post-mastectomy reconstruction defects. The procedure is mostly performed as lipofilling without ADRC. In this study, we included patients who had lipofilling with or without ADRC. We divided patients into two groups. Group I comprised of patients with lipofilling for lumpectomy defects and group II included patients with post mastectomy reconstruction defects. We compared the outcome of lipofilling with or without ADRC. The mean time from oncological surgery to the fat grafting procedure was 58 months (range 20 months to 17 years). An average of 232 ml of fat (80-420 ml) was injected. No immediate postoperative complications were seen. The average follow-up was 50 months following lipofilling procedure. Benign imaging changes were observed in 18/53 (33 percent) patients. A percutaneous biopsy was required in 6 patients (11.3%). No local recurrences were seen in either group of patients. Our results suggested no increase in the risk of local recurrence or new cancer development following lipofilling in breast cancer patients. Patients with stage III disease were found to be at a higher risk of distant metastasis.