More people are expressing their daily lives and attractive figures through social networking services (SNS) such as Facebook and Instagram. In line with the summer season in particular, overseas celebrities can be seen highlighting well-maintained figures on social media, especially a firm, full apple hip.
An apple hip refers to a lifted buttock line, shaped almost like an apple, in which fat is distributed appropriately over the upper and lower buttocks and the muscles that give firmness are well developed. It makes the legs look longer and emphasizes the volume of the whole body line, and many women put great effort into achieving it.
Generally the buttocks are one of the areas with the most fat, but they are also where roughly 40% of our body's muscle is located. The shape and firmness of the buttock area are determined by the shape and development of the gluteus maximus, the largest muscle, as well as by ethnicity and genetic factors. In the case of Asians, the pelvis is smaller and fat accumulates more in the lower part of the buttocks than the upper part, so the buttocks themselves have less volume, and sagging can worsen with changes in weight or with aging.
As a result, more people are now undergoing hip fat grafting, which improves buttock volume and firmness by transferring the patient's own fat. Hip fat grafting is surgery in which fat is harvested from the abdomen or thighs and grafted into areas lacking volume. Because it uses the patient's own living tissue, rejection is rare, and it has the advantage of being graftable only where needed. It can also improve the hip dip area, where the outer thigh curves inward, so it helps not only with body correction but also with creating a balanced body line.
The most important factor in autologous fat grafting is the survival rate. The survival rate is the proportion of grafted fat cells that settle in well and last for a long time. In the past, fat grafting techniques were limited, so there were side effects such as needing repeated regrafting, or unevenness of the skin in the treated area from over-grafting at the outset, or grafted fat cells failing to survive and becoming fibrotic. Recently, however, advances in medical technology mean the procedure is carried out in a way that raises the survival rate and improves skin elasticity as well.
There are three main ways to raise the survival rate of hip fat grafting. The first is securing good-quality fat. Fat cells are generally damaged during the suction process. No matter how much fat is grafted, damaged fat cells inevitably have a lower survival rate, so damage to fat cells must be minimized from the suction stage onward in order to secure enough good-quality pure fat.
The second is grafting an appropriate amount as densely as possible. Grafting good-quality fat in the smallest units, densely, as if filling in between the blood vessels from just beneath the epidermis down to the muscle layer, is called micro fat grafting technique. Through this, the grafted fat cells connect well with surrounding blood vessels, supporting smooth blood and nutrient supply, and the skin surface in the treated area is left smooth.
The last is grafting stem cells together with the fat. Stem cells exist in the placenta, bone marrow, blood and elsewhere and work to heal cell damage and support recovery, and among the various organs they are most abundant in fat. Stem cell fat grafting means grafting these adipose-derived stem cells together with pure fat. It helps more new blood vessels connect around the grafted fat cells and supports the recovery of tissue damaged during surgery. It can also secrete growth factors, producing the added effect of increasing firmness in the buttock area.
Stem cell hip fat grafting uses living tissue, so rejection is also low. But because the technology for handling stem cells is an advanced medical technology, it helps to confirm before surgery that the clinic has the specialized facilities and personnel to handle stem cells safely and accurately. Stem cell hip fat grafting uses stem cell grafting technology to increase not only the volume lacking in the buttock area but also its firmness. However, raising the survival rate requires highly advanced technique at every stage, from suctioning the fat to extracting and grafting the stem cells, so it is necessary to discuss your body type, degree of skin elasticity and the amount of volume you want thoroughly with the operating surgeon before deciding.
Advice by : Dr. Yoosuk Chung, TheLINE Plastic Surgery
Source : Beopbo Newspaper (http://www.beopbo.com)
