Hi everyone! This article will be a series of two where I will write about fat removal i.e. liposuction first and the second one will be about lipofilling (fat filling). When I say the new kid it refers to lipofilling. Fat removal or liposuction has been there for quite some time but lipofilling although discovered a while back has made rapid progress in the armamentarium of the Plastic surgeon only in the 21st Century.
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Fat is what makes the body beautiful but only at the right places!! A Plastic Surgeon who performs liposuction would always agree that what you leave back after liposuction is more important than what you remove. Skinny and bony was never beautiful and will never be. A young body is a full body. An old body is a fat depleted body. We all want to remain young or what we say ‘age gracefully’. We have different kinds of people walk into our clinics and hospitals requesting/demanding (yes some do!) a liposuction. Many a times we refuse to perform a surgery on a patient because we as surgeons are not convinced about that procedure being suited to that particular patient. So, when you talk about liposuction, it is as mentioned in my earlier article, the most common procedure performed in aesthetic surgery clinics across all countries. But, if we look at the number of patients that actually understand this most common procedure is surprisingly low. Obviously they are not expected to know the in and out of this procedure but having a bit of information about what is happening to you in a surgical process doesn’t hurt. When the patient is well informed, the surgeon is at ease.
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Can fat be removed from any area of the body? Well, yes. But, should it be removed from all places? Obviously no. What happens when you remove fat from a particular place? How do you remove it? Who is the ideal candidate? These questions usually play on the minds of the people contemplating liposuction. For starters, liposuction is not a weight loss procedure. The ideal candidate for liposuction would be someone who is near his/her ideal body weight with good skin elasticity and is looking for the smoothening or improvement in body contours of typical problem areas of the body. It is also not very effective in treating cellulite because it does not change the structure of the skin. The procedure essentially entails the removal of unwanted body fat surgically by the use of vacuum. What areas can be treated by it?The abdomen, thighs, hips, flanks, calves, buttocks, back, axilla, arms, the face and neck, it is also used to treat male breasts (Gynaecomastia).
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The obvious expectation from this surgery is a noticeable difference in the size of the area treated. However it may be difficult to appreciate this in the beginning after the surgery. Your weight may seem to paradoxically increase or remain the same in the initial weeks, the results become obvious during the next 4 to 6 weeks. Our current favourite terminology is actually ‘liposculpture’ rather than liposuction where we play with removal or addition of fat to the body to achieve a desired result. It is possible that if a lot of areas need to be dealt in a patient your plastic surgeon would stage your procedure to two or three sessions dealing with few areas in each. Removal of a lot of fat in one go can play havoc and disturb the balance of the body. The procedure may leave you feeling a little weak initially if you have a lot of areas treated or the amount of fat removed is large but gradually settles in a few weeks’ time.
All the fancy terms like saddlebags, love handles, banana rolls are used to describe the abnormal fat deposits or lipodystrophy. Lose them if you must but it would help if you drag out that Yoga mat lying in the corner since ages to flex your body a little or actually start running in the pair of the shoes you bought for that very purpose. Your plastic surgeon will be more happy to help you after seeing that you have actually given weight loss a sincere try.
Dr Shilpi Bhadani Kumar is an MBBS, MS, MCh (Plastic Surgery); DAFPRS Fellowship in Aesthetic Surgery (Laclinic, Switzerland). She is a former Fellow in Cosmetic Surgery, Medanta-The Medicity, Gurgaon, Haryana. She is currently Consultant Plastic & Cosmetic Surgeon, CLACS, GNH Hospital, Gurgaon, Haryana. She can be reached at shilpibhadani@gmail.com