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What About the Plastic Surgery for Liposuction?

What do you know about the cosmetic procedure called liposuction?

Public Comments

1. there are two types of liposuction.....the major liposuction is where they remove flaps of skin and cut off major portions of fat. the minor liposuctioin is where they insert a small tube through your belly button and suck out the fat, it's alot more pleasant, scars are unnoticable and the recovery time is a week versus the major surgery recovery time can be anywhere from a month or longer.
2. This procedure extracts fat deposits from under the skin. The FDA and all reputable doctors stress that it is not meant for weight loss. Liposuction involves adding fluid containing lidocaine and epinephrine to the fat tissue: It's safe from a surgical standpoint because there are no big incisions, but the fluid aspects are what you have to be most careful about. It's only safe to do a certain amount at one time, because you don't want to add too much fluid all at once.
3. I'm a pastic surgeon, and do a lot of liposuction. In general terms, liposuction is a surgical procedure that removes fat in defined anatomic regions resulting in an improved contour of that region. It can be done for both men and women, but typically using different techniques. There are a number of different types of liposuction equipment in use, including 'traditional' liposuction using blunt cannulae, VASER and UAL which employ ultrasound fragmentation of tissues and suction, and PAL, which is a power driven cannulae. All are good, and sudies have shown minimal difference in post operative results with each technique. There are some unproven modalities as well, such as Smart Lipo, which uses a laser at the cannula tip. This technique has NOT been shown to be an improvement over the other techniques listed above, and is usually more expensive. Avoid it. Liposuction is a safe procedure, and should be done in an accredited surgery center under the care of an anesthesiologist. There are safe limits to the amount of fat that can be removed during a single procedure. The most common life threatening complication after liposuction is pulmonary embolism, which is rare. As mentioned by one of the other 'question answerers' above, liposuction is not a means of weight loss. In fact, the best results with liposuction are achieved when a patient is as close to her ideal body weight as possible. If you'd like more information about liposuction, contact me through my website, and I'd be happy to talk with you more about the procedure. My plastic surgery practice is based in Seattle WA. Scott Sattler MD FACS Seattle Cosmetic Surgery Center www.scottsattlermd.com