*Plastic surgery patients looking to restore lost volume have a new option that sounds more like science fiction: “zombie filler,” a procedure using fat from donated human bodies, USA Today reports.
The technique has existed for more than a decade, according to plastic surgeon Dr. Luis Macias, but its high cost previously kept it from becoming widely accessible.
Dr. Anthony Rossi, a New York dermatologist and surgeon, confirmed that the fat comes from cadavers.
“It’s not discarded liposuction fat, or anything like that. It’s actually from cadavers,” Rossi said. “So ‘zombie’ is apropos, because these people are dead. I mean, it’s kind of dark humor.”
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Traditional fat transfers use a patient’s own fat, but some patients don’t have enough body fat for those procedures. Dr. Timothy Katzen, a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, said, “The ideal candidate would be somebody that has no body fat.”
The rise of GLP-1 medications has also created a new group of patients dealing with significant fat loss. Doctors say people taking the medications can lose fat throughout their bodies, including the face, arms, abdomen and buttocks.
“People are losing large quantities of weight with GLP-1s, and they’re losing a lot of fat,” Rossi said. “The purpose of rejuvenation, especially with facial rejuvenation, is to preserve those fat pads and also replace them, because that’s what gives us a youthful appearance.”
The trend also reflects changing attitudes toward traditional fillers. Rossi said patients developed “filler fatigue” after years of overfilled appearances, creating greater interest in approaches focused on tissue regeneration.
Macias said wealthy patients previously spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on larger-volume procedures using donated fat. More affordable options have now helped bring the treatment into wider conversations.
For patients with little body fat of their own, the procedure could offer an alternative to traditional fat transfers.
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB.COM: Bariatric Surgeries Decline as GLP-1 Medications Gain Widespread Use in Obesity Treatment
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