Does Minimally Invasive Liposuction Signal a New Direction for Cosmetic Surgery

Posted by Theo Williams in Beauty

In the last decade or so cosmetic surgery has become far more acceptable with an ever increasing number of people willing to undergoing procedures, and being happy to tell and recommend to their friends. Using various treatments to improve your body image is no longer the taboo subject that it once was, and as such the cosmetic surgery industry is booming.

Over the years a number of the more popular procedures have been fine tuned and enhanced to give patients a better treatment. Take liposuction, for example – for a long time this was the fat-reducing surgery of choice, and millions of people all over the world have been satisfied by the slimmer hips, bum, thighs, and stomach that the procedure gave them. By continually looking to improve the procedure and by including an extra important step – turning it from liposuction into liposculpture – cosmetic surgeons have given patients the chance to benefit from a far much more natural looking result than ever before.

The procedures start the same, with patients being sedated with a general anaesthetic and being taken to an operating room where a surgeon would make an incision into their body, so that a tube could be inserted through which the excess fat was suctioned away. From here, though, a surgeon performing liposculpture would then use a special tool to sculpt and mould the layer of fat that remains in the patient’s body so that it matches the contours of the underlying muscle. The incisions are then closed and the patient admitted to post-op care to recover from the anaesthetic.

While this tweak in the procedure has left patients with better looking results than ever before, there are still many people who are put off the surgery because of its gory nature or the risks that are involved. In order to reach out to these potential customers, the industry had to revamp its treatments yet again. This time, using the latest modern technology, a procedure was developed that allowed patients to be treated without the need for anaesthetic, without any incisions being made, and without any of the risks that usually accompany surgical procedures. Minimally invasive liposuction was born.

This procedure involves melting or dissolving the fat layer through the skin so that it can be flushed out of the body as natural waste material, and it can be done in two ways… First, the surgeon can use a heat treating laser to target the fat cells and break them up – this is entirely painless, but can leave a little tenderness and blistering which should clear within a couple of days. The second version of the procedure uses a fat-busting chemical which is injected into the fat, which effectively dissolves it. Again this is completely painless, and shouldn’t result in any ill effects for the patient.

Both of these minimally invasive procedures have really opened up cosmetic surgery to a completely new customer base – they’ve become incredibly popular because of their simplicity and lack of recovery time to the patient, so much so that people are even able to have a treatment done in their lunch hour from work. Thanks to the huge boost in demand it shouldn’t be long before technology is developed to allow other surgical procedures to be performed in a minimally invasive way.