By: Dr. Kenneth Hughes – Hughes Plastic Surgery

LOS ANGELES — Over the past decade, Dr. Kenneth Benjamin Hughes has seen the popularity of buttock augmentation procedures increase substantially. Board-certified plastic surgeons have two available methods for buttock augmentation: fat grafting to the buttocks (Brazilian butt lift) and butt implant surgery (solid silicone implants). The butt implant surgery remains a distant second to the Brazilian butt lift in terms of popularity, even though Dr. Kenneth Hughes has performed and does perform many butt implant surgeries and butt implant revisions.

The Brazilian butt lift procedure involves extracting fat from the areas of excess like the abdomen, sides, back, arms, or thighs and transferring that fat to the buttocks and hips. The results are generally very good with excellent patient satisfaction rates. There are complications which patients should be made aware of. This includes, fluid collection, bleeding, infection, blood clots, fat embolus, fat necrosis or fat death, asymmetry, etc. However, one of the most important factors to ensure great results in this operation is the ability of the patient to adhere to a strict postoperative protocol.

All plastic surgeons will have different recommendations in the postoperative period, but Dr. Kenneth Hughes typically provides helpful advice in the form of these five tips.

1) Always come to follow-up visits – so that Dr. Hughes can assess how you are doing and evaluate for fluid collections, infection, or other issues.

2) Wear your compression garment 24/7 for the first 6 weeks – Dr. Kenneth Hughes will show you how to place the garment, and he expects you to wear it as instructed to reduce the risk of fluid collection formation.

3) Avoid exercise and lifting anything greater than 5 to 10 lbs. for 6 weeks – exercise or strenuous activity can lead to postoperative bleeding and fluid collections due to increases in blood pressure.

4) Adequate nutrition – the patient should not be dieting but maintaining a calorie surplus with at least 100 grams of protein a day to ensure appropriate healing in the postoperative hypermetabolic state.

5) No showering until Dr. Hughes instructs you to do so – getting incisions wet can open the incisions and allow for transit of patient’s bacterial skin flora into the areas of surgery leading to an infection.

Each case will be different as each patient is unique and has unique considerations, and Dr. Kenneth Hughes will customize a plan for you.

For more information, please visit drkennethhughesbbl.com