At times the “The Battle of the Bulge” becomes extremely challenging to conquer, despite regular exercise and a healthy diet. Liposuction is an effective cosmetic procedure that addresses the excessive fat that gets accumulated in certain areas of your body, which is difficult to remove by natural means.
The areas that commonly concern women include the inner and outer thighs, inner knees, stomach, and flanks. In men the common areas of concern are the love handles, stomach, and flanks. Less common areas include the tail of the breast in women and the breast area in men. Liposuction is one of the most popular cosmetic procedures. However, it is essential to understand what liposuction can and can’t accomplish. How liposuction is performed, and what factors contribute to make liposuction unsafe.
Even though liposuction is one of the most widely performed cosmetic methods, there remains a lot of confusion about the best way to perform liposuction and when it should be performed. Dr. Steinsapir, a renowned Eye Plastic and Cosmetic Surgeon in Los Angeles and Beverley Hills, provides his input on liposuction by presenting the following valuable facts…
Liposuction: Not a Quick Fix for Your Weight Problem
Liposuction is a body sculpting technique and not a weight reduction procedure. Liposuction improves your silhouette by getting rid of the fat that is localized to only certain areas of the body. As such, the surgery is best for individuals with stable weight. If you regularly yo-yo in weight more than 15 pounds, then liposuction is probably not right for you.
It is a misconception to think that you will lose weight from liposuction. You will not. While fat is removed from the body surgically, the swelling that follows usually more than compensates for the fat removed. The reality is that only two things determine our weight: How much we eat and how much we metabolize.
It is completely normal to regain the fat that has been removed, but due to the sculpting of the body with liposuction the fat that returns is more evenly distributed over the entire body, rather than getting disproportionately re-deposited in the problem areas. Your body weight primarily depends on two factors, the quantity and quality of the food that you consume and your metabolic rate. The only way to lose weight is to increase your metabolism by regular exercise and follow a healthy diet. No form of liposuction will cause you to weigh less.
Tumescent Liposuction: The Safest Liposuction Technique
Pure Tumescent Liposuction under local anesthesia is the safest technique to eliminate those stubborn fat cells. Widely acclaimed for his minimally invasive treatments, Dr. Steinsapir practices tumescent liposuction in Los Angeles because it causes minimal tissue trauma, nearly no blood loss, and a fast recovery. To execute this procedure, Dr. Steinsapir uses a dilute local anesthetic, which is infiltrated gradually into the fatty areas, and the fat is removed by micro-cannulas or very small cannulas. A microcannula takes out smaller amounts of fat with each pass offering a highly refined method to control how fat is sculpted.
Liposuction: Under General Anesthesia or Local Anesthesia?
The major difference between liposuction under general anesthesia and local anesthesia is safety. Liposuction under general anesthesia is much more profitable for the surgeon than doing liposuction under tumescent local anesthesia. The same liposuction that can be done in 45 minutes under general anesthesia may take about 3 hours to perform under local anesthesia. This means that surgeons who do liposuction under general anesthesia can do 3 times the number of cases in the same time frame. This is why liposuction is still performed this way.
However, you pay a huge price for your doctor’s convenience. The death rate due to liposuction under a general anesthesia has been estimated as 1 in 5000 cases, which is alarmingly high. Compare with the death rate associated liposuction under a local anesthesia, which is estimated as 1 in 500,000. This proves that liposuction performed under local anesthesia is much safer than performed under general anesthesia.
There are additional benefits for doing liposuction under local anesthesia. For one, with much few drugs in your system, you recover much faster. Instead of being hung over for days with a general anesthesia, you feel very much yourself the next day. There is far less trauma with liposuction under local anesthesia. The reasons for this are straightforward. When you are under general anesthesia, surgeons tend to do very aggressive liposuction with larger cannulas. This means that you are severely beaten up during surgery. It can take 6 to 8 weeks before the body recovers from this type of trauma. Blood loss can be so severe that a blood transfusion and hospitalization are needed. Not so with tumescent liposuction under local anesthesia. Liposuction is done with very small micro-cannulas and a pace that is comfortable for you. This means much less trauma, much more rapid recovery, and minimal blood loss. Hospitalization and blood transfusions are not reported in large studies of this technique. Most people return to their work out in two days with some soreness.
Laser Liposuction vs. No Laser
Laser based liposuction systems are being touted in marketing as the greatest thing since sliced toast. The marketing proposition is very compelling: lasers are sexy. It is practically a sure fired sales pitch. It works equally well on doctors and the public. However, think about another laser service: CO2 laser resurfacing. This has been and continues to be a huge disaster for the public. There are literally thousands of women out there with scarred or depigmented faces out there. Even after these complications were recognized and there was a public backlash, docs were out their performing these awful procedures. The reason was simple. Once you sign a 6 year lease or buy these very expensive machines, every one coming into your office has to be pushed into the service whether it is right for them or not. I know one doc who tells his patients that their faces will be depigmented by the service and there will be a line between where the face was treated and the neck skin where treatment stopped. At least he is honest about what this treatment does.
We are seeing a similar type of hype with the laser based liposuction machines with unrealistic before and after pictures. Typically these show a flabby stomach in the before and a rock hard etched 6-pack stomach in the after picture. Sure, this could be the same person but it is impossible that the only difference was laser liposuction. Try laser liposuction plus a carbohydrate free diet, hundreds of hours in the gym, and a little photoshop. Again, these machines cost over a hundred thousand dollars. Once a doc buys the machine, everyone is going to be pushed into this procedure. There is no evidence that the device is better than tumescent liposuction or any other form of liposuction. The incisions needed to insert these devices under the skin are larger than those needed for the microcannulas. The bottom line here is that you will be bearing the expensive of this pricy machine with no evidence that it is any better that pure tumescent liposuction under the safety of local anesthesia.
Liposuction: The After-Effects
It is common to experience a lumpy firmness after liposuction due to the inflammation caused by the surgery in the fatty areas. This inflammation gradually subsides in 4-6 weeks, as the body begins to heal from the surgery. Due to long term remodeling of the fat, the body continues to improve over a period of 4 to 6 months. It is common to experience soreness and bruising after the procedure. Generally most people take two or three days off from work and return to their work out in two days. Compression garments are provide with the procedures and are used for 5 to 6 days. Compare this with other liposuction techniqueswere compression garments need to be worn for 6 to 8 weeks.
Contact Dr. Steinsapir today for a Liposuction consultation and discussion that is perfectly tailored to your needs, concerns and desires.
