All About Liposuction

Your cosmetic surgeon will also advise you of special precautions to take. For example, women taking birth control pills may be asked to stop taking them and find alternative methods until after liposuction surgery. You may also be advised to stop taking ibuprofen because it thins the blood. Because you will be under anesthesia, you will be advised not to eat or drink anything after midnight the day before your liposuction surgery. You'll want to make special arrangements before surgery.

These arrangements could include child care or extended leave from your job. Don't take your recovery lightly. In addition, if large amounts of fat are to be removed, you may want to arrange for an extended stay in the hospital. On the day of your liposuction surgery, precise and accurate preoperative markings are done prior to surgery. With the patient standing, areas to be treated are outlined with marking pen. Areas to be avoided or areas for fat grafting are also marked.

If you have bulging and flabby areas of the body from excess fat, especially the abdomen, arms, thighs, and neck, liposuction may be the option you are looking for. This is especially true if you eat a healthy diet and stay physically fit and yet these fat deposits are persisting.

The fat pockets can result from genetic factors, body chemistry, and many other causes. People with localized, exercise-resistant Liposuction is not treatment of choice for weight loss.Liposuction is not treatment of choice for weight loss. But you should be aware that the flabby appearance of the area being treated by liposuction may persist.

Liposuction is not treatment of choice for weight loss. People who are very overweight or who have large areas of fat deposits are usually not good candidates. It is advisable to lose weight first and reduce the fatty area through diet or exercise before considering liposuction.

Conventional Liposuction entails the aspiration of fat using small-diameter hollow needles which are inserted through small incisions or holes. These needles, or what are called cannulas are attached to a source of high vacuum pressure which causes the fat to attach to the openings of the cannula.

Through various to and fro motions, the plastic surgeon removes the fat attached to cannulas from its bed. These fat particles are aspirated with a collection device. When healing occurs, the overlying skin automatically adjusts to the reduced mass of fat from the liposuction site, and the undesired body contours are diminished and shaped.

Ultrasound Assisted Liposuction (UAL) is the second method that has been used to facilitate liposuction. The ultrasound energy is transmitted to a transducer, which transforms the sound waves into mechanical vibrations that are transmitted to a probe or cannula that has been inserted into the fat.

Vibrating the probe or cannula induces tissue cavitation and melting of fat. Initially UAL utilized a solid probe to melt the fat, following which the melted fat was drained from surgical incisions or was vacuumed out using conventional liposuction. Nowadays, a hollow probe is used, permitting simultaneous melting and draining of fat.

Advantages of Ultrasound Assisted Liposuction are:

1. More complete fat evacuation producing greater volume reduction.
2. Selective melting of fat, relatively sparing other collagen tissues to produce more effective skin retraction,
3. Less mechanical effort on the part of the surgeon, with improved operating efficiency.
4. Increased efficiency in scarred areas.

Disadvantages of the ultrasound technique are:

1. The probes used in UAL are larger than conventional cannulas, thus resulting in larger incisions and more visible scars.
2. The effects of ultrasound-generated energy are not totally confined to fat. Other tissues, including the collagen matrix which provides to skin, may be injured.
3. The rapidly vibrating probe heats surrounding tissues along the entire length of the probe and can cause thermal burns. The incision must be protected from burns with a heat-resistant sleeve at the insertion point, requiring a still larger incision to accept both the sleeve and the probe.
4. Conventional liposuction must be carried out after UAL in order to evacuate as much of the melted fat as possible.
5. UAL is slower than conventional liposuction, which results in additional operation and anesthesia time.

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COSMETIC SURGERY