Facial autograft muscle injection (facial collagen injections)

FAMI stands for ‘Facial Autograft Muscle Injection’. It is a relatively new cosmetic plastic surgery that is still being refined. It involves the injection of collagen grafts deep into facial muscles. The intention of the operation is to fill very deep wrinkles and add volume to faces that might be sagging due to weight loss or aging. Many doctors consider it to be a viable, less surgically invasive alternative to having a facelift.

As this procedure is very new, your first challenge is in finding a plastic surgeon that is trained in the technique. The developer of the procedure, French plastic surgeon Roger Amar M.D. is a surgeon and anatomist who full time trains plastic surgeons in this pioneering technique. Perhaps the first question that you should ask any plastic surgeon is “Do you have certification and training from Dr. Amar” before you allow him or her to do autograft muscle injections on your face.

Autograft muscle injection surgery is technically a form of fat augmentation as body fat is harvested from other areas on the body and then injected or transplanted into deep facial wrinkles to plump them up. This type of harvested body fat may also be used to add volume to a face with diminished bone structure due to aging or to plump up a sagging neckline. You can call these injections as ‘Facial Fat Injections.’

Before you decide to get this surgery you should be aware that nobody knows the long-term effects of it. Also, as is seen with lip implants, fat that is harvested from the body does have the tendency to migrate or be reabsorbed by the body. When injected into the face, there is a risk of asymmetrical results if one side of the body absorbs fat faster than the other. Also when Dr. Roger Amar first did his technique on his first one hundred patients, prolonged edema (excess body fluid that causes swelling) was a side effect for patients that had a large amount of fat autografted into their bodies.

Some doctors are using Dr. Amar's autografting procedure using substances other than body fat. Bovine collagen (collagen from cows) such as Zyderm and Zyplast is now also used for autografting. As some individuals have been known to reject cow collagen the plastic surgeon will do a skin test first to see if you are allergic to the substance.

A gelatin matrix called Fabril is also injected as an alternative to collagen derived from cows. Originally this substance was invented for the correction of scars but it has been adapted for FAMI treatments. Fabril is thought to have longer lasting results compared to collagen and patients who opt for Fabril don’t have to visit the plastic surgeon as often for touch ups and “refills”. Still not all people tolerate the synthetic substance Fabril very well and the doctor will also do a skin test to make sure you are not allergic to it.

There is also a synthetic gel that comes under many different brand names that is made from hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid is very well tolerated by the human body but like treatments with collagen the patient must visit the plastic surgeon again and again for new injections to maintain a youthful appearance. Hence, hyaluronic acid injection can be administered with less hassle.

All of these procedures are as easy to administer as a shot in the arm. However some side effects can occur. Allergic reactions are quite common with some of the synthetic injectibles. After an injection it is also quite common to experience swelling, swelling, redness or bleeding in the area where the fat or collagen has been injected. The area also feel numb or you might feel hard or lumpy areas if the artificial collagen did not set properly in the tissues. Normally these types of symptoms only last for about three days to a week.

As this is a relatively new procedure, the ideal candidate for facial autograft collagen injections would have to be the individual that can afford to experiment with plastic surgery. These injections do not have a permanent effect and repeated visits to the plastic surgeon to be reinjected can be expensive. Also as nobody is sure of the long-term effects of this procedure, you may have to be able to afford a contingency plan in case the procedure goes wrong and needs to be corrected.