New Delhi: Doctors at a Delhi hospital have successfully constructed a natural right breast of a 23-year-old woman using body fat taken from her thigh.

The patient, a resident of Indore, suffered from the Poland Syndrome, a genetic problem that typically appears during a girl’s teenage years.

The syndrome leads to absence of breast growth in just one side of the body. In other words, it is a deformity in which one breast gets developed and the other one is not able to grow, leaving the female patient with an uneven body figure.

Doctors said that the patient suffered from depression because of her asymmetrical body. “This affected her self-confidence badly. She was no longer a buoyant girl. World seemed to get shattered for her and life seemed too dull, as if it had lost the meaning,” said her doctor.

Seeking expert guidance and assistance she consulted doctors at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in the city. Following consultations with plastic and cosmetic surgeon Dr Vivek Kumar, the woman opted for fat grafting, also identified as fat transfer, as it is a natural and marginally-invasive surgery.

Dr Kumar did not encourage breast implant and suggested that the patient opt for fat grafting.

“Fat grafting is the latest technique for breast augmentation and has reached India recently,” said Dr Kumar.

Explaining the efficiency of the technique, he said, “When implemented appropriately, it can enrich the size and shape of the breasts. Fat grafting is a superb way to fine-tune breast size for irregularity and can correct the all-famous Poland Syndrome. Apart from this, it is being used for many other cosmetic and reconstructive procedures of breast.”

As part of the procedure, fat is removed from the parts of the body where it is present significantly, such as the thighs, stomach or buttocks, and is then decontaminated to isolate the healthy fat cells from the impaired ones before being transferred to the region of the body that is deficient in volume.

According to Dr Kumar, surgery was performed on June 28 last year. “During the surgery , we injected 450 ml of autologous fat into the left breast, which was taken from her thigh. While injecting the fat, we took care that it is dispersed evenly. Extra precautions were taken to inject fat into soft cavities and not into chest cavity,“ he added.