LIPOSCULPTURE (FAT REMOVAL)

The technique of Liposuction was developed in the early 80’s by Gerard Ilouz and Pierre Fournier working in Paris. Dr Kingdon attended the first “workshop” given by these surgeons in Paris in 1984. Since that time we have done thousands of cases.

The technique we now use is known as “Liposculpture”. This incorporates a number of refinements which makes it much more effective and safer than the older form of Liposuction. All our cases are now done as day cases, under local anaesthesia with sedation, in our own theatre. This means there are advantages in terms of safety and speed of recovery. We use a method of anaesthesia called the Tumescent method which means that we can remove quite large volumes of fat with practically no blood loss, again increasing the safety margins for the patient.

Liposculpture is a treatment for localised fat areas that do not respond to diet and exercise. These localised areas are quite often genetically determined.

Liposculpture is not a treatment for the overweight. However, Liposculpture can form part of the treatment for these patients providing they clearly understand that it must be part of a total programme including diet and exercise.

Once these fatty areas have been removed by Liposculpture they do not recur provided that the patient maintains their weight or in cases where the patients are overweight, that there is some weight loss. The number of fat cells in the body is determined before puberty so that during Liposculpture many millions of fat cells are removed from the problem areas and these can not be replaced. If the patient’s weight increases then the remaining fat cells can swell. However, we will have permanently reduced the amount of fat that can be put on in the problem areas.

We have never had any serious complications of Liposculpture at The Cosmetic Surgery Clinic. There is a degree of discomfort and swelling post-operatively but this is a normal reaction to the treatment. We are very much aware of the possible risk of infection and we always give IV antibiotics to prevent this. Using the regime that we do, we have never had infection associated with Liposculpture.

There is always an optimum volume of fat to be removed from each area at operation. This volume is determined by the aesthetic judgement of the surgeon at the time, bearing in mind that complications of Liposculpture nearly always arise from over aggressive surgery.

Post-operatively patients wear a corset to compress the areas treated 24 hours a day for one week and then for another three weeks during the day. Follow up continues for many months post-operatively.

Please see a separate section on Advanced Laser Lipolysis which is extremely useful for smaller fat deposits and is a walk in/walk out procedure.