Making the upper edge of a silicone breast implant invisible by fat onlay-grafting harvested from the affected inframammary fold

Background In silicone breast implant (SBI)-based breast reconstructions, aesthetic outcomes are often low due to the visible upper edge of the SBI. To ameliorate this, grafting fat harvested from the SBI operative field has not been reported to date. Therefore, we aimed to develop a novel technique for fat onlay-grafting, harvested from the inframammary fold (IMF) of the reconstructed breast, and investigate its usefulness. Methods A total of 90 patients who underwent SBI-based breast reconstruction after a simple mastectomy were included in this study. The harvested fat was recorded by weight and grafted evenly to the medial and median upper edge of the SBI on the pectoralis major muscle. We applied this technique to 30 patients (fat onlay-grafting group) and compared them with the 60 patients (no-grafting group) who did not undergo our technique using the postoperative 1-year aesthetic outcome scores of the medial and median upper edge of the SBI. Furthermore, we investigated the correlation between the weight of harvested fat and body mass index. Results No postoperative wound complications occurred, and infection, hardened fat, and fat lysis were not found in the fat onlay-grafting group. The medial and total aesthetic outcome scores in the fat onlay-grafting group were significantly higher than those in the no-grafting group (P<0.05). The average weight of harvested fat was 11.9 [5-32] g. The correlation between the weight of the harvested fat and body mass index was significantly positive (R2=0.7119, P<0.05). Conclusions Our technique made the upper edge of the SBI invisible. Further, it was simple and less invasive with safe augmentation. Therefore, we believe that this technique can contribute to better aesthetic outcomes in SBI-based breast reconstruction.