Liposuction and Fat Grafting to Ankles and Calves
This 24-year-old patient from Hampton, VA has always been bothered by lack of shape and definition to her calves and ankles. Many years ago, she was involved in a severe car accident that left her with scarring and depression in the front of her lower legs, especially on the right. It also led to long term swelling of the right ankle. Even faced with these challenges, I felt we could give her an improvement. I knew we could not expect perfect symmetry with such a great difference between the two legs, but fat grafting would hopefully help with the depressions in the front.
This type of surgery calls for a true three dimensional planning and ability to sculpt since some areas need fat removed and other areas need fat added. There is no place in the literature, whether textbook or article, that tells you exactly where fat needs to be removed and where it needs to be added; this is determined by the eye of the surgeon. In surgery, we suctioned over 1000 cc and some of this fat was injected back in certain well planned areas. In some parts of her leg she had fat removed or added in multiple places, all on the same side of the leg. One can see the exact plans in the pre-surgical marking photos, and from the right, one can see the depth of depression in front, especially on the right. Minus marks are localized areas where fat will be removed, and plus is where fat will be injected. Fat can be injected in small areas like this through just needle holes.
Her “After” photos we taken four months following surgery, and we can see a big improvement in shapeliness although still there is some degree of swelling of her right ankle related to her trauma years ago. Under local anesthesia, I am going to try to remove a little more in the low right ankle but I may not be able to help it any further due to her trauma and scarring. Regardless, she is still extremely pleased with the shaping that this high definition, small cannula, finesse liposuction with grafting accomplishes.
Surgeon: Dr. Thomas Hubbard
Patient Age: 24
Patient Gender: Female
Case Number: 373
