Delhi: In what was termed a "breakthrough" surgery, doctors at a city hospital used body fat from the thigh to help recreate the natural breast of a woman who was diagnosed with a condition called 'Poland syndrome'.
"Poland syndrome is a genetic problem that typically appears during a girl's teenage years. It causes absence of breast growth in just one side of the body and lack of chest muscles," said Dr Vivek Kumar, consultant at the department of Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, who performed the surgery.
The 23-year-old woman from Indore was diagnosed with Poland syndrome when she reached puberty. She then herself searched the Internet for treatment available for the condition and met several doctors to find about fat grafting and breast implant, Kumar said.
Fat grafting, fat transfer or fat injection, is a natural, marginally invasive surgery for those seeking breast intensification or correcting the deformity caused due to Poland syndrome, Kumar said.
As part of the procedure, fat is removed from the parts of the body where it is present significantly, such as the thighs, stomach or buttocks, and is then decontaminated to isolate the healthy fat cells from the impaired ones before being transferred to the region of the body that is deficient in volume, Kumar said.
"We performed the surgery on June 28 of last year. During the surgery, autologous fat was injected into the left breast which was taken from her thigh... Extra precautions were taken to inject the fat into soft cavities only and not into the chest cavity," he said.
After the sessions of fat transfer surgery were completed successfully, she was asked to follow a regimen of post- operative care of two to three weeks and was fully recovered by the end of the third week, added Kumar.
