Herndon – October 05, 2026 -- Patients who shed significant weight on GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic often lose fat from the buttocks and hands faster than anywhere else, leaving too little tissue to harvest for traditional fat grafting. Dr. Amir Mahan Ghaznavi of AMG Plastic Surgery in Herndon, Virginia, is now offering an alternative: alloClae, a donor-derived structural adipose tissue product placed directly into the body without liposuction.
The procedure skips the operating room entirely
Unlike autologous fat grafting, which requires harvesting a patient's own fat through liposuction, alloClae arrives ready for placement. Dr. Ghaznavi injects it in his office under local anesthesia -- no donor site, no general anesthesia. Most patients return to desk work within one to two days.
"alloClae lets me restore a modest amount of volume in an office visit, awake, with no liposuction and no donor site," Dr. Ghaznavi said. "The key is selecting the appropriate patient and placing the volume where it is best suited to their anatomy and goals."
Doctors target hips, hands, and scars with the tissue
Dr. Ghaznavi considers alloClae for patients seeking targeted volume in the hips, buttocks, hands, scars, and certain breast contour irregularities -- including softening hip dips or restoring volume to aging hands. For patients with loose skin after major weight loss, he stages the treatment alongside body-contouring surgery. He has performed roughly 800 liposuction and fat-grafting procedures, plus numerous alloClae treatments.
The product is tissue, not a drug
alloClae is processed from screened donor fat by Tiger Aesthetics and distributed as a human tissue product under FDA tissue regulations -- it is not an FDA-approved drug or device. The processed tissue contains no living cells and has no systemic effect. Results typically last 12 to 18 months, though the product has only been available since 2024, so long-term data remains limited.
Not every patient qualifies
Patients seeking substantial volume increases may be better served by traditional fat grafting, Dr. Ghaznavi noted. Potential risks include cyst or nodule formation, infection, hematoma, allergic reactions, anaphylaxis, and skin discoloration. The product should not be used on patients with active infection, severe allergen sensitivities, or a history of anaphylaxis.