Dermal Fat Grafts - anybody have one?

[CIder Mills]

I am planning on having a 4th procedure to fix the hack job I received when I had my gyn surgery done.  My pecs and nipples have divots in them, and my right nipple folds into itself.  I'm having fat transplants put through a centrifuge into my left side, and some contouring, as it looks like that side is slipping down my chest.  The right side is getting a dermal fat graft from my abdomen.  
2 Questions
1) Anybody have success with Dermal Fat Grafts?
2) How did the site it was harvested from look after it was done?  Am I swapping divots in my chest in exchange for a huge divot in my stomach?

[TigerPaws]

Please I do not wish to minimize or ridicule your problem. What I would like to point out to others considering cosmetic surgery is that there are no guarantees when a man goes under a surgeons knife for a non-life threatening purely cosmetic procedure.

There are few truly medical reasons to have your breasts removed, psychological issues maybe but that is a completely different issue requiring a different type of treatment.

There are countless people who are far worse off after a cosmetic surgical procedure undergone for nothing more than personal vanity reasons. While women are the number one culprit and are specifically targeted by advertising and predatory often unscrupulous cosmetic surgeons, men are increasingly in their cross hairs.

The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Reports Americans Spent More Than 12 Billion in 2014; Procedures for Men Up 43% Over Five Year Period

The numbers are staggering:

The top five surgical procedures for both men and women combined in 2014 were:

Liposuction (342,494 procedures)
Breast Augmentation (286,694 procedures)
Eyelid Surgery (165,714 procedures)
Tummy Tuck (164,021 procedures) • Nose Surgery (145,909 procedures)
Over the past 5 years, (since 2010), there have been significant increases in the following procedures for men:


Surgical:

Blepharoplasty (up 34%)
Male Breast Reduction (up 33%)
Facelift (up 44%)  

While the majority of surgical procedures are preformed by competent possibly even skilled surgeons no matter how good a surgeon is there are never guarantees.

The question is. Is it worth the risk?

[Dr. Elliot Jacobs]

Tiger Paws views are certainly pertinent, but bottom line is that if you have surgery by an acknowledged expert in the field, your chances of a successful outcome are greatly enhanced.

Sorry your initial surgery went poorly and that you have now needed several revisions to try to correct the situation.  Have you gone back to the original surgeon for the revisions??
Bear in mind, every subsequent operation is made more difficult by the inevitable scar tissue that results from any operation.  If you have had one operation and three revisions, your chest probably has a significant amount of scar tissue present -- and scar tissue does not support fat grafts too well.  As for a dermal fat graft, that would require an incision to "harvest" the graft -- so you will have a linear scar at the site of harvest.  You should speak to your new surgeon and discuss all details of your upcoming surgery.

Good luck!

Dr Jacobs

[TigerPaws]

The purpose of my post is not to cast doubt on any specific physician, it was and is to point out that whenever someone undergoes any surgical procedure there are risks with no guarantee of positive or desired results.

Even so called simple procedures are carry the possibility of undesirable outcomes and even death. A former service and team member of mine went in for a simple biopsy and while the procedure was a success my friend died in recovery several hours later. The biopsy was optional as the chances of the unknown dark area in his lung was considered to be of low risk for cancer.

Yet an otherwise healthy man of 48 fit and in good physical condition is dead, leaving a young wife and three small children fatherless because a physician/surgeon suggested that the procedure would be a good idea just to be sure.

A case could be made for his surgical procedure but how many men have been disfigured, robbed of their health and even their lives by unnecessary cosmetic surgical procedures? Please do not forget that difference between a doctor and any other tradesman is in reality very little, they both need to earn a living, feed, house, clothe their families and that some are better than others.

The difference between a surgeon and a tradesman is that having your wiring or some welding done is unlikely to kill you if the person performing the work makes a mistake in the process.

Cutting holes in your body can and in the case of my friend did in fact kill him.

[CIder Mills]

Thanks Dr. Jacobs.  I went back to the Doctor that did my original gyn surgery once more, and he did fat injections straight from my abdomen into the concave nipple on my right side, but that changed nothing.  I have since moved and wouldn't go back to the first Doctor since I feel so discouraged and am visibly deformed now.
When you say "expert in the field" do you mean in the field of plastic surgery or do you mean specifically in the gynecomastia field?
I understand I'll have a linear scar from the space that will be harvested, I was told it would be somewhere close to where i wear my pants, and my scars (or rather dark spots from where I have fat removed at my abdomen) have never faded, so I expect a significant dark line from this next procedure, but I am DESPERATE to fix my chest now.  I had the surgery to build my confidence, and the result has been the exact opposite, as I clearly look like I've had a trauma to my chest.  Skin pulls tight in awkward places, one nipple folds in on itself, the other now has fat below it that needs to be contoured and both nipples now reside in a space below my pectoral muscle, so its looks terribly messy to me.  My shame felt so different before my surgery, it was just the way I looked, now I look like I've had something done, and what was done has made it look worse, so the shame I have hurts so much more.  If I could go back and convince myself it wasnt worth it, I would.
As far as existing scar tissue, I had massaged my chest religiously, so I dont feel any scar tissue that I can notice on my right side, and just a small amount on my left side under the nipple.  I will say one thing, my nipples healed perfectly and you can barely even see a semicircle scar around either of them, so that aspect of the surgery was done well.

[Dr. Elliot Jacobs]

Assuming you no longer wish to return to your original surgeon, then best advice is to seek opinions from one or more gyne specialists in your area.  If they are not available, then consider traveling for such expertise before embarking on further surgery.  It is money well invested.

Dr Jacobs

[CIder Mills]

I live in Binghampton NY.  The doc I got a quote from here seemed pretty confident, but isn't a gynecomastia expert, he's only done the dermal fat grafts on women.  I suppose I could look for docs in NYC or Cleveland OH.  Is there a website that you'd recommend to find a doctor who specializes?