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This week, I wanted to address some of the more frequently asked questions about liposuction. Most people have a number of questions and if you have one I don't cover, email me your question to jeffswetnam@yahoo.com and I will do my best to find an answer for you.
Liposuction, as covered last week, has really grown up over the past several years. Used to be, lipo was done under general anesthesia, in a hospital, with significant blood loss, often requiring transfusion. This all changed when the tumescent techniques were developed using lidocaine and epinephrine. What this does is provide an anesthetic "block" to the area with the lidocaine (the same stuff used by the dentist to allow them to drill teeth) and limit blood loss with epinephrine as it causes constriction of blood vessels and slows the absorption of the lidocaine. Once these techniques were perfected, liposuction pretty much moved to an office procedure. With the addition of lasers, ultrasound, and other ancillary energy, we are now able to affect how the skin reacts to removing the underlying fatty tissue, i.e., we can make it contract and lose some of its sagginess.
Many questions remain. One of the most often asked questions is "what happens if I gain weight after liposuction?" To understand the answer to that question, you need to understand the reasoning behind the answer. Theoretically, we are all born with a finite number of fat cells. These cells increase or decrease in size as our weight goes up or down. With liposuction, we remove a population of these cells in the area treated. Therefore, if you gain weight, you cannot gain as much in the area treated, so, you will gain it in other places. 5-10 pounds probably will go unnoticed but 20 or 30, and you will have significant changes in other areas. You may also notice lumpiness in the treated areas as the fat cells that are left (we cannot remove them all) will grow in size.
The second question often asked is will my skin shrink? This is also a great question. I look at the quality of the skin and evaluate it prior to recommending liposuction. If the skin in the lower abdomen say, has numerous stretch marks, wrinkles and scars, then liposuction may not be the best choice as we are expecting poor quality skin to contract and smooth out. For the abdomen, in the person mentioned above, I would probably recommend a tummy tuck instead. Skin that has no stretch marks, no scars, and is good quality anyway will usually respond well. We use the laser to promote the skin contracture and also to make the procedure less traumatic.
The third question is usually, how much can I do at one time?? The answer to this question requires a multiple part answer. First, how big are the areas? We can do multiple small areas at one time. Larger areas may have to be devided up. Why?? Well, it depends on how much lidocaine we have to use, and, how much fat we are going to remove. Of course, there are limits on the amount of lidocaine we can use based on a persons weight. We also usually don't remove more than 4 liters of fat (two, 2 liter coke bottles full) at each setting as rates of complication increase exponentially when 4 liters is exceeded. I try to estimate how much fatty tissue will be removed from each area and make a plan accordingly.
Well, that's enough for this week! Again, if you have a question you would like addressed about liposuction, or anything else, email me and we'll do our best to address it.
Remember, Cosmetic consults are complimentary so call 918-786-7780 or 1-866-weight0 TODAY!!