Technically liposuction is considered one of the most basic operations in the field of plastic surgery. F.i. rhinoplasty is not a procedure of choice for many practicing plastic surgeons: most aesthetic medicine professionals try to stay away from it and only a limited number of specialists do it right. Liposuction, on the contrary, often becomes a gateway operation for unexperienced doctors. As a result there is a great proliferation of sham clinics who offer excess fat removal left and right. Experimenting in lipoplasty is not rare as it’s really hard to fail completely at it. In some cases there won’t be any visible impact and plastic surgeоn would  just shrug his shoulders. In worst case scenario there will be some superficial irregularities of skin like focal skin lumpiness or dents (similar to washboard). In those circumstances it’s rather common for plastic surgeons to try to persuade their unlucky patients that this kind of outcome is a logical consequence of fat reduction procedure, which of course is not true.

The morale of the story is that a good and experienced plastic surgeon is the key to get the desired outcome. Your surgeon has to be well-versed in anatomy, have a a substantial work experience and be a real professional. 

The word “liposuction” literally means suction of fat (from Greek “lipos” – fat). The procedure came into existence in 80-ies when the technology of fat reduction assisted by vacuum suction came around. First mentioning of focal fat reduction dates back to 1921, when a French surgeon — Dr. Dujarier tried to remove fat with a syringe and obstetrical instruments. His curettage procedure did not produce the desired results and famous ballerina got a permanent injury instead of slimming effect.

Fortunately nowadays liposuction is almost completely safe and risk-free. Patient’s tissues are treated with vasoconstrictive agents, subcutaneous fat cells are emulsified by ultrasound vibrations or in case of tumescent liposuction treated by a special tumescent anesthetic solution to make it easier to suck fat out.

The common rhetoric is that some particular piece of equipment or a specific set of techniques can provide a drastically different result. We’d recommend you treat these statements with a good deal of skepticism as the real difference comes from the professional level of your surgeon, not from his instruments or ways of  liquefying fat / choice of ultrasound machine brand.

Big part of liposuction depends on the proper movements of tube or cannula that is inserted into fat layers. This tube should be constantly moved along certain trajectories, at a certain depth, at a certain frequency etc. If your plastic surgeon is inexperienced, or his knowledge of anatomy is inadequate, the result of this operation (whether tumescent, ultrasound, or laser approach was implemented) will be unsatisfactory.

Contrary to popular belief, liposuction is not a procedure aimed at getting rid of excess weight. You can’t really slim an obese person by liposuction: to get there you have to suck fat from the entire surface of the body – legs, hips, buttocks, abdomen, face, hands which is too major of an intervention. However, liposuction can help to reduce fat layer in limited areas, remove uneven focal fat deposits and eventually change the body contour.

By focal fat deposits we mean so-called fat traps that create our genetically defined silhouettes: inner thigh and inner knee areas, upper posterior thigh, double chin, abdomen fat and lumpiness and so on. Some of these problem areas can’t be removed either through diet or exercise, unless you lose so much weight that local fat deposits no longer bother you. However, even thin people are often unhappy with the contour of their body, and, in this case, the shape of fat layer can only be corrected by liposuction. Moreover, fat that was removed during liposuction does not regenerate at the same spot again.

The trick of the method is that number of fat cells in adult organism is constant, which means that weight fluctuations affect only the size of fat cells but not their number (old fat cells do not disappear and new ones do not originate). So any fat that was removed from one’s body does not return to the same areas. Patients continue to lose and gain weight but their silhouettes retain the shape generated by liposuction.

Liposuction can redefine your silhouette into a guitar shape, but whether you maintain this form or turn it into violin or double bass totally depends on your lifestyle.

Another myth of liposuction is that it helps to eliminate cellulite. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Majorly because cellulite generates in upper subcutaneous layers of fibrous connective tissues while liposuction works with deeper layers.

Liposuction is also helpless in handling stretches. Their formation depends on deterioration of skin elasticity and liposuction cannot bring it back.

Also, liposuction does nothing to normalize fat metabolism and does not rearrange fat tissues. It also does not affect skin imperfections or cellulite. What it does, however, is that it helps to redefine body contour and reduce fat layer in specific body areas.

Posted under: Liposuction