Liposuction Questions Answered

What Happens Prior to Liposuction Surgery?

Before liposuction surgery, a complete medical history is taken and a careful examination is conducted in order to evaluate your condition. During the consultation, your dermatologic surgeon describes the procedure and what results might realistically be expected. Your doctor also will review alternative treatment options and explain the possible risks and complications that may occur. Photographs are frequently taken before and after surgery to help evaluate the amount of improvement.

Liposuction Questions Answered

When is Liposuction indicated?

Liposuction surgery is most effective for removing localized fat deposits in body areas that do not respond to dieting or exercising. Liposuction surgery is not intended as a substitute for weight loss, but rather is a contouring procedure. It is best utilized in a program of exercise and optimal weight maintenance.

Liposuction surgery also has many valuable therapeutic applications and has been used effectively to treat medical conditions like excessive sweating and non-cosmetic fat accumulation, such as lipomas (benign fatty tumors) and gynecomastia (enlarged, male breasts.)

Mini Liposuction : Precise Results & Quick Recovery

One of the most sought-after cosmetic surgery procedures in recent years is liposuction surgery. While not exactly done as a replacement for dieting and exercise, liposuction surgery is designed to remove really stubborn areas of fat which just won’t go away with the more traditional methods of losing weight. Known as a body sculpting procedure, liposuction removes unwanted fat from the abdomen, hips, thighs, buttocks, upper arms, knees, neck, chin, and cheeks.

During the past few years, a number of newly-developed techniques or methods of liposuction have been helping many cosmetic surgeons provide more precise results and quicker recovery times for selected patients. Among these techniques are the ultrasound-assisted lipoplasty (UAL), the tumescent technique, the super-wet technique, and the “mini liposuction”.

First introduced by Beverly Hills liposuction specialist Dr. David M. Amron, mini-liposuction means exactly what the name actually implies: a shorter version of the liposuction procedure. Mini-liposuction is deemed the ideal method to use when making spot reductions in one or two stomach areas in persons who are closer to their ideal body weight. Simply put, a person who is slightly out of proportion because of one or two stubborn fatty areas can be made proportionate with the application of the mini-liposuction procedure.

Mini-liposuction focuses primarily on just one or two areas. The entire procedure, which normally just takes less than one hour of a patient’s time, involves the removal of less than one liter or 2.5 pounds of fat from the area being operated on. Furthermore, the whole mini-liposuction procedure can be done under local anesthesia, which means that a patient faces lesser risks. Most important of all, mini-liposuction will set a patient back by less than $2,500.

Among the areas of the body that mini-liposuction can take care of include those located around the knees, beneath the chin, above the breast at the armpit and behind the elbows. The mini-liposuction procedure can also be applied to other areas of the body which present a small amount of excess fat.

The whole mini-liposuction procedure, while tending to involve very minimal recovery time, can provide a patient with results that can only be described as dramatic.

But as with most cosmetic surgery patients, those who are considering mini-liposuction must have realistic expectations on the results the procedure can give them. If people think they can just undergo mini-liposuction just for the heck of it, they’ve got another think coming. Like what’s been said above, mini-liposuction, or any other liposuction procedure, is no substitute for dieting and exercise. While it definitely can help enhance the appearance and self-esteem of a person, mini-liposuction can’t change the way you look exactly the way you’ve fantasized. It is wise then to further contemplate your reasons for undergoing mini-liposuction before making your decision.

Liposuction Questions Answered

What is Liposuction Surgery?

Liposuction surgery is the removal of excess fat with a small, straw-like instrument called a cannula that is attached to a liposuction machine. The fat layer under the skin is converted to a network of tunnels and the cannula is manipulated within the layers to remove unwanted fatty deposits. An elastic garment is then worn for compression and healing. The result is a resculpting of bulging areas into more attractive contours.

Top 5 Reasons for Revision Liposuction

1. Disproportion
The surgeon has not paid attention to proper body proportion in his evaluation and has caused the patient to store fat in disproportionate and unbalanced ways. Typically, this is when the surgeon does liposuction surgery on an overweight individual who is perfectly proportionate. This can usually be greatly improved by targeting the imbalance with revision liposuction surgery to create a proportioned and balanced shape.

2. Asymmetry
Excess fullness in one area is usually very easy to improve or fix by targeting the asymmetric side with properly done revision liposuction surgery.

3. Not enough fat taken (too conservative)
This is also quite easy to remedy with subsequent revision. Although, I feel it is very important to achieve the best result the first time when I am doing the surgery. It is better to be more conservative than more aggressive, as it is easier to remedy.

4. Too much taken (too aggressive)
If the surgeon has been overly aggressive, especially in certain parts of the body where skin elasticity is poor, it can be difficult even in an expert’s hands to make things perfect. Usually, I can make significant improvements with a combination of fat grafting and skin tightening procedures and sometimes micro liposuction surgery at the edges of where too much fat was taken to blend the area.

5. Indentations, rippling, and ridging of the skin
This is usually caused by poking, jabbing or rasping the underneath part of the skin during liposuction surgery or by being too aggressive in areas with decreased elasticity. It can also be caused by liposuctioning in the wrong direction (ex: horizontally in the upper outer thigh). Depending on the patient, I do revision liposuction surgery to the whole area again with a very small spatula canula, perform a fat transfer and or do skin tightening procedures-such as thermage.