Houston Beautiful Body

A Brazilian butt lift (BBL) consists of collecting fat via liposuction from other areas of the body and transferring that fat to the buttocks. With this procedure it is very important to liposuction the waistline, which includes the abdomen, flanks/ love handles, as this adds to the dramatic contrast between a small waist and a full bubbly butt. In other words, a BBL is accentuating, contouring and reshaping using volume redistribution – shifting volume from an unattractive zone to a more desirable curvaceous position.

The amount of fat that can be transferred safely to the buttocks is different for each patient. There are two factors that affect this: 1) the amount of “good” fat that can be collected via liposuction from other areas of the body (ex. a very thin patient may only have 500cc of fat total) and 2) the buttocks themselves (ex. a small tight muscular buttocks may not have room to safely inject 1000cc per buttock). During your consultation for a BBL, Dr. Sato can make a close estimate to how much fat can be collected and transferred.

Dermal fillers are sometimes used off label (not FDA approved) to add volume to the buttocks if the patient does not want a silicone implant and does not have enough fat to be transferred or have already had a BBL and want even more volume. This can be costly as a large volume of filler is usually needed.

In the right patient, a BBL can definitely give results similar to Kim K. A BBL is a combination of liposuction at the waistline to create a very small waist and volume addition to the buttocks as well as shaping.

100% known risk = fat volume loss (~30-50% of the fat volume is lost). Immediately post op the buttocks are very large secondary to swelling from the trauma of the transfer and also a small amount of the lipoaspirate transferred is tumescent. Over the first 3-6 months ~30-50% of the fat volume is lost.

100% know risk = asymmetry (all patients have asymmetrical buttocks which can be subtle or obvious). Adding fat to the buttocks will not always correct this and can sometimes make the asymmetry more noticeable. Also fat volume loss may not occur to the same extent bilaterally which can lead to some asymmetry.

Contour irregularities at the liposuction site (very low risk in the hands of a well trained plastic surgeon but there is a risk). Any surface irregularities such as scars or cellulite may be accentuated with the fat grafting.

The procedure is permanent in the sense that the ~50% of fat that survives is permanent unless the patient loses weight from the weight they were at the time of surgery or starts a strenuous workout schedule that they did not do prior to the surgery. Thanks to gravity with the natural aging process everything on our body will sag eventually and the buttocks after a BBL is no exception.

NO, not necessarily. Weight gain from the pregnancy can lead to loss of the small waistline created with liposuction. Liposuction can always be redone in the future.

NO, the body will actually reject any fat that comes from someone who does not have the same exact genetic makeup.

With fat transfer to any area of the body, the first few days after surgery are critical. The fat actually survives by getting its nutrients from surround tissue (muscle and fat). Any trauma to this transferred fat can cause it not to survive. Even with the best technique, ~30-50% of the fat volume will be lost (usually in the first 3 months after surgery). The thought process by most plastic surgeons is that sitting on your buttocks immediately after surgery will put too much pressure on the fat increasing the fat volume loss. I ask my patients to stay off of their buttocks for 10-14 days. Sitting is only allowed to use the restroom. When sleeping at night, the patient either lays on their stomach or on their side. Some patients have a lifestyle where they are unable to follow these restrictions. In that case, I make sure they fully understand that they may have more volume loss than 30-50%. Aside from the restrictions on sitting, the recovery is essentially the recovery for liposuction.
– pain for 2-4 weeks, swelling for ~6 weeks but much improved ~2 weeks, bruising, numbness, compression garment for 2 weeks all the time and intermittently for up to 6 weeks

Yes, this is patient dependent. Combining procedures makes the anesthesia time longer. It is important that patients are healthy in order to undergo prolonged anesthesia times. Combining procedures also makes positioning post-op more difficult for the patient and with longer recovery periods.

This varies depending on how many areas are liposuctioned and how much fat is transferred. ($5000-$8500)