SAFE, SMOOTH & AFFORDABLE LIPOSUCTION

TUMESCENT ANESTHESIA & MECHANIZED LIPOSUCTION

By: Nathan Newman, MD

Advanced liposuction techniques have made liposuction one of the safest and most common cosmetic surgery procedures performed today.  Prior methods of liposuction procedures needed to be done in the hospital under general anesthesia and was associated with much blood loss and required the patient to be hospitalized for one or more nights before they would be able to go home.  It was also associated with much post operative pain and a relatively long recovery time and expensive price tag.
Tumescent anesthesia & mechanized liposuction are the new technologies that have redefined liposuction to ensure you the safest and best liposuction results, with the least pain and down time, and the most cost-effective procedure available today.

Tumescent Anesthesia
In this technique numbing medicine is mixed with much salt water and injected into the fat that is marked for removal.  This mixture fills the fat and separates the fat from other tissues, vessels, and nerves and thereby reduces the damage to the tissues near the fat.  This technique also allows the surgeon to provide effective local anesthesia with much diluted amounts of medicine.  This technical advancement has revolutionized liposuction and has made the procedure safe, the results much smoother, the recovery time minimal and the cost much more affordable. Tumescent liposuction is now done as an outpatient surgery under local anesthesia and you can resume most of your daily tasks with little to no down-time. 

Mechanized liposuction
Some of us have seen doctors on TV ramming the cannula into the patient and breaking a sweat to remove the excess fat.  This older method, called suction assisted liposuction (SAL), used the physicians strength to complete the procedure and caused much trauma to the tissues and caused pain and prolonged recovery after the surgery.  With mechanization of the liposuction cannulas, new techniques such as Power Assisted Liposuction (PAL), Soft-Tissue Advanced Rotary Sculpture System (STAR), Ultrasound Assisted Liposuction (UAL), Laser Assisted Liposuction (LAL) and Water-Jet Assisted Liposuction (WAL) have minimized trauma to the tissues, thus reducing post-operative pain and down-time.

Post-op Recovery
After tumescent anesthesia and mechanized liposuction you may resume your daily routine almost immediately.  Most of my patients report that they feel soreness like they have had a good workout and that they do not need to take pain medications.  The soreness and swelling will be better if you wear a pressure garment that is given to you after the surgery.  For the first 2 weeks, you are asked to refrain from strenuous exercise to prevent excessive swelling and soreness.  The body noticeably heals over the next few weeks and the swelling subsides and the skin tightens and conforms to your new figure. Over the next year, the healing is gradually completed from the inside with new collagen formation and further contouring.

Liposuction Safety Summary
The following components will ensure the safest liposuction procedure available to you:

1. No general Anesthesia as it carries with it its own inherent risks.
2. Tumescent anesthesia is vital for your safety and to achieve the best results.
3. Mechanized liposuction methods will aid in achieving the desire results, reduce procedure time, minimize   post operative pain and shorten recovery time.