January 10, 2025 | Fat Transfer
Fat transfer has one catch that nobody puts on the brochure. You have to have the fat.
For years my thinnest patients, and my most-operated ones, had nothing I could offer them but an implant or a synthetic filler. alloClae changed that. Here is what it is, who it is for, and where it stops, in my own words.
What alloClae Is
alloClae is donated human fat tissue, processed to keep the natural structure of the fat cells and the matrix around them, and supplied ready to inject. Because it keeps that structure, it behaves like fat where I place it. There is no liposuction, no harvest, no second surgical site.
It is not a hyaluronic acid filler. It is not an implant. And it is not your own fat, which is the whole point.
How Often I Use It, and Where
Q: How often are you using alloClae, and where?
We’ve been using alloClae very often. I’m one of the early adopters, and actually one of the first 20 surgeons who was invited to start using alloClae, more than a year ago. The most common places we’re using it are in the breast, in liposuction contour irregularities, and in the buttock, especially for projection or to fill in the hip dips. We’re performing this procedure at least two to four times per week, so it has become a very popular therapy.
Who It Is For: Two Patients
Q: What kinds of patients are best suited for alloClae?
The first patient actually had enough fat in the flank area, so we could have done a BBL. But he is a professional who did not have any downtime and wanted to get back to work the next day. He preferred alloClae, since it is done with local anesthesia and he can return to work the next day and to exercise within a week. He favored this type of procedure and liked it so much that he repeated it a few months later for further volume.
The second type of patient is usually someone who has already had multiple BBLs and liposuction procedures, so there truly isn’t any donor fat the patient can provide from their own body. At this point, we have to rely on biomodulators like Sculptra. But as soon as alloClae came out, it became a much better option, since it feels like fat, tends to last much, much longer, and is more predictable.
| alloClae fits if | Fat transfer is probably the better choice if |
|---|---|
| You cannot take downtime and want local anesthesia | You are already having liposuction, so the fat is free |
| You have had multiple BBLs or lipo procedures and have no donor fat left | You have donor fat and want it gone anyway |
| You want a refinement: hip dips, a lipo dent, breast symmetry, rippling over an implant | You want a full size change in one large-volume procedure |
| You would otherwise be looking at Sculptra | You want a single surgery that also slims the donor area |
alloClae is a refinement tool. It smooths, restores and adds. It does not build a whole new buttock, and if a patient asks me for that, I say so and we talk about a BBL or, for very thin patients, an implant.
How It Is Regulated, Plainly
Q: How do you explain to a patient what an HCT/P is, and why that is not the same as FDA clearance?
The difference here is that donor tissue does not go through the normal FDA approval protocols like drugs and medications do. Instead, the process used to prepare the donor tissue must go through FDA guidelines. Therefore, alloClae complies with all guidelines necessary to be used in a medical fashion. alloClae did not skip FDA approval, because donor grafts do not go through the same FDA channel as drugs. They do have to comply with strict FDA guidelines.
So the accurate sentence is this one: alloClae is an FDA-regulated human tissue allograft, marketed and sold as a Human Cell and Tissue Product (an HCT/P), and it is both sterile and biocompatible. Donor screening and testing for transmissible disease are part of that framework. I do not want a patient of mine repeating “FDA cleared,” because that is a different pathway.
What It Feels Like to Have Done
In-office, under local anesthesia, usually under an hour. The volume goes in and stays where I put it, so the result is immediate. Back to work the next day, back to exercise within a week. Compare that to fat transfer, where you are recovering from the liposuction as well as the graft.
What About Lipoderma?
Lipoderma is the sister product I use for the face and hands: a cryopreserved donor fat graft, roughly 90 percent fat cells and 10 percent matrix. Same idea, different target. If your question is about the face, start with the Lipoderma page.
How Long It Lasts
Because it is fat, results can last, and in my patients it has lasted much longer than a biomodulator. How long depends on your body and your weight stability, and I say the same thing I say about grafted fat: stable weight, stable result. I am careful not to quote a number of years, because the long-term data is still being collected.
Why Choose Dr. Agullo
I am double board-certified (American Board of Plastic Surgery and American Board of Surgery), a Mayo Clinic plastic surgery fellowship alum, a Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, and a Castle Connolly Top Doctor for 13 consecutive years. I was one of the first 20 surgeons invited to use alloClae, and I still do fat transfer every week (here is why fat is overtaking fillers). When I recommend donor fat instead, it is because it is the better tool for that patient, not the only one I have.
Ready to Talk?
If you have been told you do not have enough fat for a transfer, or you want a correction without the downtime, let’s take a look together. Call the office at (915) 590-7900, text us at 1-866-814-0038, or book a consultation at agulloplasticsurgery.com/appointments.
#StayBeautiful
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