What Is Liposuction? Liposuction Risks And Benefits
Liposuction, also called lipoplasty, liposculpture suction lipectomy, or lipo, is a type of cosmetic surgery which breaks up and "sucks" fat from various possible parts of the body, most commonly the abdomen, thighs, buttocks, neck, chin, upper and backs of the arms, calves, and back beauty. The fat is removed through a hollow instrument - a cannula - which is inserted under the skin. A powerful, high-pressure vacuum is applied to the cannula.
Liposuction is the most common cosmetic operation in America and the United Kingdom. Over 400,000 procedures are carried out in the USA each year.
Patients who undergo liposuction generally have a stable body weight, but would like to remove undesirable deposits of body fat in specific parts of the body. It is not an overall weight-loss method - it is not a treatment for obesity. Liposuction does not remove cellulite, dimples or stretch marks. The aim is esthetic - the patient wishes to change and enhance the contour of his/her body.
Liposuction permanently removes fat cells from the body beauty. It can alter the shape of a body. However, if the patient does not lead a healthy lifestyle after the operation there is a risk that the remaining fat cells grow bigger.
The amount of fat that can be safely removed is limited. Liposuction has a number of possible risks, including infection, numbness and/or scarring. If too much fat is removed there may be lumpiness or dents in the skin. Experts say that the surgical risks are linked to the amount of fat removed.
Some medical conditions may benefit from liposuction, including:
Lipomas - benign fatty tumors.
Gynecomastia - where fatty breast tissue has developed in men.
Lipodystrophy syndrome - a lipid (fat) metabolism disturbance in which there is too much fat in some parts of the body and partial or total absence of fat in other parts. Sometimes a side effect of some HIV medications.
Liposuction - a short history Liposuction was invented in 1974 by two Italian-American surgeons - Doctors Giorgio and Arpad Fischer. The roots of liposuction date back to the 1920s. Dr. Dujarier, a French surgeon performed a fat removal procedure on a model in 1926 which tragically resulted in gangrene in one of her legs; consequently, interest in body contouring receded for several decades.
In the late 1960s Leon Forrester Tcheupdjian, a European surgeon used primitive curettage techniques to remove fat - however, results were patchy, there was a lot of bleeding and morbidity was high.
What we know as 'modern liposuction' started with a presentation in 1982 by Dr. Yves-Gerard Illouz, a French surgeon. He started what became known as the 'Illouz Method" - a technique of suction-assisted lipolysis (breakdown or destruction of fats) after infusing fluid into tissues using blunt cannulae and a high-vacuum suction. Illouz demonstrated both reproducible good results and low morbidity. During that decade several US surgeons experimented with liposuction, developing some variations from the Illouz Method, with mixed results.
In 1985 the tumescent technique was described by Drs. Jeffrey Alan Klein (USA) and Patrick Lillis (USA), which added elevated volumes of liquid containing a local anesthetic, allowing the technique to be carried out in an office setting under intravenous sedation, rather than general anesthesia beauty. There were concerns about the high volume of fluid and lidocaine toxicity potential with tumescent techniques, which eventually led to the concept of lower volume super wet tumescence.
Near the end of the last century ultrasound was introduced to assist in the removal of fat, which was initially liquefied through the application of ultrasonic energy. However, there was an increase in reported cases of complications.
In recent years laser tipped probes - which induce thermal lipolysis - have been introduced. How beneficial they are over traditional techniques still remains to be determined.
Over the last three decades, advancement in liposuction techniques have meant that a larger number of fat cells can be removed with less blood loss, risk, discomfort, and shorter recovery periods. Fat can also be used today as a natural filler (autologous fat transfer), where fat is taken from one part of the body, cleaned, and then injected into another area of the body - for example, to enhance the shape of the buttocks or reduce wrinkles.