Laser Liposuction - Advanced Technology And Patient Benefits For Body Contouring Surgery
Laser Liposuction Article Written by John Q. Cook, M.D.
Dr. Cook and his team offer a complete range of advanced techniques of body contour surgery. These techniques include abdominoplasty, classical liposuction, vaser® lipoplasty, fat grafting, and laser lipoplasty. Laser liposuction offers several important benefits to our patients. With this advanced technology it is possible for Dr. Cook to treat areas of excess fat under local anesthesia. We offer the slimlipo® technique of laser lipoplasty in the comfort and privacy of our Gold Coast and Winnetka offices. The recovery is typically quicker and less uncomfortable than with alternative techniques of liposuction. This minimizes time away from work and other personal activities. There is also a degree of tightening of treated areas that is greater than what we have experienced with other techniques including classical liposuction, ultrasonic liposuction, and vaser® lipoplasty. This can be particularly useful when treating zones such as the neck and arms. The tiny diameter of the treatment device allows Dr. Cook to carry out the surgery through incisions that are much smaller than with alternative techniques. If you have a problem zone on your body that is resistant to diet and exercise, laser liposuction is a technique worthy of your consideration.
In this video Dr. Cook explains the benefits of laser liposuction.
Laser Lipoplasty: Liposuction For All Seasons
One particular advantage of laser lipoplasty is that it really can be scheduled during any season. With other forms of liposuction the recovery period is longer and it is necessary to wear elastic support garments for many weeks after the surgery. With laser lipoplasty the period where you will need to wear support garments and stay away from heavy exercise is shorter when compared to other forms of liposuction. Less “down time” means that it is much easier to fit the procedure into your busy schedule, even during the summer months.
In these videos patients share their experience with laser liposuction.
- 1. What Is Laser Liposuction?
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Laser liposuction, also referred to as laser lipoplasty, is the most recent technique utilized by plastic surgeons to remove excess fat from problem areas of the body. For men, the most commonly treated areas include the abdomen, the waist, and the chest. For women laser liposuction is useful in the abdomen, flanks, hips, inner thigh, outer thigh, and knees. Laser lipoplasty is particularly helpful in the arms for women and in the neck for both men and women.
Plastic surgeons that use this particular technique follow a sequence of three steps. First the surgeon painlessly injects a fluid that contains local anesthetic into the area that needs to be sculpted. After waiting for the local anesthesia to take effect, the surgeon introduces a tiny tube under the skin that delivers laser energy to the zone that is to be treated. Finally the surgeon uses another tiny tube to draw off the melted fat.
This laser energy has two effects. First, it causes destruction of unwanted fat cells. There are plenty of videos on the internet that demonstrate this process and make for dramatic pictures that are fun to watch. Second, if applied with skill, this energy can help to tighten the tissue of the zones the surgeon treats. This can be particularly helpful in the arms and neck.
- 2. What is the patient experience like with Slimlipo® Laser Liposuction?
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Since the procedure is done under local anesthesia you can eat a normal light meal the day of surgery and keep a good state of hydration with water, juice, or other beverage. Also coffee and tea drinkers do not have to skip their morning cup. This alone makes the entire experience more enjoyable.
You arrive at our office and will be given medications that gently relax you. Dr. Cook will mark the areas that you have previously discussed at your consultation, and you are ready for your procedure. In the operating room Dr. Cook will inject a local anesthetic and make tiny incisions for the treatment. He then gently introduces the fluid that prepares the area for surgery. After a period of relaxation, Dr. Cook will apply the laser energy to the area of excess fat and then extract the fat from the treated zone. During the procedure you can bring your favorite music and listen to it. Before you know it the procedure is finished. Our team will help you into your garment. Your will feel a little stiff in the area where you were treated, but you will be able to move comfortably and calmly.
- 3. What are the advantages Of Laser Liposuction (Slim Lipo®)?
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Why bother, you might ask, with yet another technology when the others work reasonably well? In my opinion, there are several specific advantages that make laser liposuction compelling.
- Laser liposuction can be carried out under local anesthesia in the office.
- There are cost advantages since the fees of the anesthesiologist and surgicenter can be avoided.
- The procedure is less traumatic than with other techniques, so that the overall patient experience is much better.
- Because it is less traumatic, recovery is much quicker and easier than with other techniques
- Most patients can return to work within one to two days of the treatment.
- The incisions for the surgery are tiny, much smaller than with alternative techniques
- There is actually some tightening that occurs with this procedure, in distinction to my experience with other techniques of lipoplasty. This makes the procedure well-suited for necks and arms.
- 4. How is the recovery from Slimlipo® Laser Lipoplasty?
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The fluid that we injected to prepare you for laser liposuction contains a local anesthetic, so this makes your early recovery relatively easy. Most patients will take a mild pain reliever such as Tylenol® for the first day or two and some patients will take a stronger pain pill the first evening after surgery. You can do normal light activity after your surgery, but you should avoid heavy exercise. Most patients can return to work within two days after the surgery.
- 5. The Most Important Factor For Success With Laser Liposuction
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Just because the overall experience of laser lipoplasty is relatively easy from the patient’s perspective, this does not mean that it is easy for the surgeon to obtain excellent results. There is a high degree of skill required of the surgeon who carries out this type of surgery. In this regard, it is no different from any other form of liposuction.
Because laser liposuction can be carried out so nicely in the office setting, it is possible for a clinician with no surgical training to obtain this technology and begin treating patients. The results can be disastrous. It took me a while to overcome my own negative impressions of laser liposuction because of the horrible results that I saw in patients who came to me for help after having undergone the procedure in various “medispas.” I might still not be doing the procedure, but for the fact that one of the plastic surgeons whom I trained in the Plastic Surgery residency at Rush University Medical Center, Dr. Spero Theodorou, invited me to visit him in New York City and witness first-hand how wonderful the procedure can be in skilled hands. His results were excellent and the overall patient experience was superior to what occurred with other forms of liposuction.
It was then I realized that the bad results I was seeing were not related to the underlying technology of laser liposuction, but were a direct result of the lack of training of the people who performed these procedures. In other words, an untrained and poorly credentialed practitioner will wreak havoc with any type of liposuction: classical, ultrasound, or laser.
Please look for a highly experienced surgeon with the proper credentials. One good way to do this is to see if the person treating you is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery.
- 6. Why Does Laser Liposuction Work So Well Under Local Anesthesia?
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This is the first liposuction technique that I feel works well under local anesthesia in an office setting. I have worked with all previous liposuction techniques including classical liposuction and vaser® lipoplasty extensively, and when I have utilized them under local anesthesia it has been a frustrating and uncomfortable experience for the patient. I have carried out a large number of liposuction procedures with these techniques, but virtually all of them have been in the surgical center under deep sedation or general anesthesia.
With laser lipoplasty the patient experience is fundamentally different. There is simply much less discomfort when the fat is melted in the laser lipolysis technique than when it is mechanically broken apart in classical liposuction or treated with various forms of ultrasonic liposuction.
What is the explanation for the difference between these different techniques of lipolysis? It is fairly easy to explain the difference when we are contrasting classical liposuction with a laser lipoplasty technique such as slimlipo®. With classical liposuction fat is simply pulled into the end of the tube with suction and broken off with the cutting edge of the holes in the tube. This process is relatively traumatic and nonselective, so that a certain number of nerves and blood vessels are traumatized as well. This hurts. With laser lipolysis the fat is melted by the application of a selective wavelength of laser energy, so there is less collateral damage. I can’t offer scientific proof that this is the reason for the difference, but it seems a good common sense explanation.
Why is laser lipo so much better tolerated under local anesthesia than techniques of ultrasonic liposuction such as vaser®? One possible explanation is that the entire length of the cannula (tube) that is used to deliver the ultrasonic energy is hot, a fact readily appreciated by the surgeon who inadvertently grasps the cannula by its side while energy is being delivered. The slim lipo® cannula is hot only at its tip where the laser energy is being delivered to the fat.
Whatever the explanation, the fact remains that laser lipoplasty enables the surgeon to treat a wide variety of patients under local anesthesia in the comfort of an office setting. We are able to offer our patients office-based slim lipo® therapy in both our Chicago Gold Coast and our Winnetka offices. Our Gold Coast office overlooks the Chicago Water Tower and is within a half hour trip from a variety of neighborhoods including Streeterville, the Gold Coast, Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Bucktown, Millenium Park, the South Loop, and the West Loop. It is also easy to reach our office from the southern, western and northern suburbs, since we are at the center of the transportation hub; there is convenient validated parking in the building. Our Winnetka office is within a half hour drive from the northern end of the city, from the North Shore suburbs, and most of the northern suburbs. Because the Winnetka office is easily reached from the Tristate Tollway, it is easily reached from the Barrington, Hinsdale, and Oakbrook areas. Patients from southern Wisconsin also find the Winnetka office a convenient option.
- 7. Where Does Laser Liposuction Fit In? Everything You Could Ever Want To Know About Different Liposuction Techniques
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How we gain fat is determined largely by our genetic makeup, but also in part by patterns of nutrition and exercise. If you are very lucky, the fat you gain will be distributed in a uniform way throughout the body. Much more commonly, the fat will go to specific zones, such as the abdomen in men and the hips and outer thighs in women. This process of excess fat accumulation in one or more specific areas is referred to as lipodystrophy. Zones of lipodystrophy can be enormously frustrating, since they can be very resistant to programs of diet and exercise.
If you have a zone of excess fat, it’s always best to have your first step in treatment to be a structured program of diet and exercise. If you are very lucky, this may be all you need to lose the zone of unwanted fat. More commonly, the fat will still be there, but you will have laid a foundation for long terms success if you seek surgical treatment.
If you had zones of excess fat before the 1970’s your only option was surgery that involved long incisions and direct removal of the excess fat. The only areas where this worked half decently were the abdomen (abdominoplasty, tummy tuck) and the breast (breast reduction). In other areas the scars were a bad trade off, and it was hard to remove the fat in a manner that left a pleasing contour.
The person who moved the ball forward was a French surgeon named Dr. Illouz. He figured out that if there was a zone of excess fat you could reach it by making a small incision and passing a long metal tube with one or several holes on the end into the excess fat. If the tube is connected by plastic tubing to a suction pump, when the surgeon moves the tube back and forth it will break off pieces of fat that are sucked out of the body.
This inelegant description is exactly what early liposuction was like. The early instrumentation was crude and made little distinction between fat and other structures, such as nerves and blood vessels, so there was quite a bit of trauma with the procedure. The recovery was often long and painful and bruising could last for months.
In my opinion the next great leap forward occurred as a result of two technical developments: the popularization of what is now called tumescent liposuction and the development of better instrumentation. With tumescent liposuction, the surgeon introduces into the zone that is to be treated a solution that is essentially a mixture of salt water, local anesthesia, and an agent that constricts blood vessels. This makes the fat easier to extract and cuts down on bruising quite dramatically. It also makes it easier to work with more sophisticated, smaller diameter cannulas to extract the fat, and this in turn leads to a smoother result, at least in the hands of a skilled surgeon. As results became better and more consistent and recovery became easier, the popularity of liposuction exploded.
Just when everything seemed to be standardized with lipoplasty technique, along came an Italian plastic surgeon named Dr. Zocchi (sp). Dr Zocchi was experimenting with the effects of ultrasound on different body structures when he discovered that certain frequencies of ultrasound were very good at breaking apart fat cells but left other structures unharmed. He realized that this might make ultrasound a useful technology for liposuction, and he developed a technique that harnessed ultrasound’s possibilities. As with any potentially disruptive technology, there was a mixed reaction among plastic surgeons when Dr. Zocchi began to present his work at American meetings. It seems that when something new comes along plastic surgeons tend to divide themselves into three groups: the fat and happy, the intellectually curious, and the eager early adapters.
The “fat and happy” group of surgeons was very busy in their practices with classical liposuction, perhaps to the point where they really didn’t want to be much busier, so they viewed the introduction of a potentially disruptive technology with annoyance and tended to disparage it. The “eager early adapters” were typically young plastic surgeons not far out from the completion of their training, who were looking for a vehicle to distinguish themselves from the established surgeons in their community. They were open- minded as to new possibilities, but perhaps a little eager to jump on the next bandwagon without doing all their homework. Fortunately for the field of plastic surgery, the organized structure of plastic surgery professional organizations at the time had a sufficient number of the third group, the “intellectually curious,” that a concerted effort was made to work with the FDA in order to evaluate this new technology and to introduce it to surgeons with the proper qualifications.
The net effect of this process was that ultrasonic liposuction was introduced in a highly structured way to board-certified plastic surgeons. Some chose to adopt the technology; others did not. There tended to be relatively few complications, because the surgeons who chose to use the new technology of ultrasonic lipoplasty were experienced and properly credentialed. To this day, there are surgeons who prefer classical liposuction because of its simplicity and those (like myself) who feel that, especially in certain zones, various forms of ultrasonic liposuction impart an advantage.
Ultrasonic liposuction has evolved since its introduction and has reached a level of sophistication that makes it a “workhorse” for many busy plastic surgeons. Vaser® lipoplasty is, in my opinion, the most advanced form of ultrasonic liposuction that is widely available in the United States. I have used this technology in over 1000 patients with a very high level of success. The character of the ultrasound can be varied in ways that allow for a very specific approach to different zones of fat. With a highly-experienced surgeon there may be a moderate degree of tightening of the treated area, but not to the degree that can be obtained with laser lipoplasty.
PAL or power-assisted lipectomy is a technology that some surgeons utilize for speed and comfort. Rather than manually pushing the cannula back and forth to remove fat, the surgeon uses a device that mechanically moves the cannula back and forth. Some surgeons feel this makes them less fatigued for longer surgeries.
Laser liposuction has a number of similarities to ultrasonic liposuction. The treatment sequence is similar: first the introduction of the tumescent solution to prepare the area that is to be treated, then the application of energy, then the extraction of the melted fat.
The two most important distinguishing characteristics of laser liposuction are the ease of application under local anesthesia and the tightening effect that occurs with this technology. These and other issues are discussed earlier on this web page.
In the last few years several non-invasive techniques of fat reduction have been introduced to the American market and more are on the way. These devices use heat, cold, radiofrequency, and other forms of energy to reduce fat deposits in the body. Some of these technologies will produce a modest reduction in treated zones, but I have never seen results that equal what can be accomplished with any form of liposuction: classical, ultrasonic, or laser.
Please read section 7 if you are interested in understanding where laser liposuction fits in with other techniques of body contour surgery, such as classical liposuction, ultrasonic liposuction, and vaser lipoplasty.
To obtain further information about laser liposuction or other forms of body contour surgery, please contact Whole Beauty ® Institute
If you feel that you might benefit from Laser Liposuction with slim lipo® our team can provide you with further information. To speak with one of our team or to set up a consultation please contact us at 312-751-2112 or via the internet at info@wholebeautyinstitute.com