Fat injections: what are the possible complications?

What is lipofilling?

Lipofilling, also known as lipostructure, involves injecting autologous fat, that is, the patient’s own fat. The surgeon removes fat from certain parts of the patient’s body, then processes and purifies it before reinjecting it into other areas. This technique is used to fill dark circles, reshape volumes or reduce facial wrinkles. It is particularly effective for improving skin quality and treating dark circles.

The different lipofillings performed by Dr Hayot

Nano lipofilling

Nano lipofilling is based on a specific processing of the harvested fat. It aims to regenerate dermal cells in order to improve skin quality in a very natural way. Fat injections help restore radiance to the facial skin. The technique is highly effective for treating wrinkles and dark circles, improving skin texture and correcting scars or skin blemishes.

Volumising lipofilling

The technique involves injecting autologous fat into certain parts of the face to reshape its volume (dark circles, temples, cheeks, etc.). Volumising lipofilling can replace hyaluronic acid injections, and offers better results for dark circles.

Anti-wrinkle fat injections

In this method, fat is injected into the nasolabial folds, the crow’s feet or the wrinkles around the mouth. The result is natural and long-lasting, unlike injections of fillers such as botox or hyaluronic acid. Anti-wrinkle lipofilling is often combined with another procedure (face and neck lift, blepharoplasty, volumising lipofilling, and so on) to perfect the aesthetic result.

Possible complications after fat injections

Complications associated with lipofilling depend above all on the surgeon’s experience and subtlety in his or her assessment of volume restoration. The more subtle the procedure, the less noticeable it is.

Complications are mainly due to technical problems. If the procedure is carried out with the same techniques as lipostructure, it can lead to a number of complications, such as micro-cysts or irregular results.

The only way to treat eyelid volumes effectively is to use a very specific fat preparation technique, which I have developed myself, allowing the purest possible fat to be injected. If the fat is properly treated, by cleaning it, filtering it and removing all fibrosis from it, the result is a much more fluid fat that passes through micro-cannulas and does not give rise to these complications.