liposuction drainage

dr. broder: hello, i am dr. lawrence broderm.d., owner and medical director of beliza medical spa with offices in austin and roundrock, tx. i would like to take a few minutes to discuss the smartlipo laser liposuctionprocedure with you and answer the common questions that we are presented with.what is smartlipo laser liposuction? smartlipo refers to a laser that is produced by a companynamed cynosure. what is a laser? a laser is a device that produces a single wavelengthof light. the wavelength of light of the smartlipo machine is designed for specifically the purposeof tightening the skin and melting fat. what is the difference between smartlipo and traditionalliposuction? traditional liposuction usually involves going to the operating room and havinggeneral anesthetic. general anesthesia is

usually the riskiest part of the procedure.smartlipo, however, involves the use tumescent anesthesia.the difference is that tumescent anesthesia is administered in the office. this is a localanesthetic. the local anesthetic consists of lidocane and epinephrine. it is infusedunder your skin through very small incisions. the lidocane provides anesthesia for yourskin and fat and the epinephrine constricts blood vessels leading to a bloodless procedure.this tumescent anesthesia actually makes the procedure possible and actually makes it asafer procedure. since your skin and fat are numb, you feel no pain. however, your musclewall and lower layers of tissues, such as your abdominal wall, will still have sensation.this makes it safer, since we cannot inadvertently

hurt anything deeper than where we are working.also, in contrast to traditional liposuction, we use what is called microcannulas. traditionalliposuction cannulas can be anywhere from six to eight millimeters in diameter. theseare designed for use in the operating room, where as you are under general anesthetic,time is of the essence. they are used for rapid removal of fat. this could lead to irregularities.the cannulas that we use to suction fat are actually smaller, as they are called microcannulasand around the diameter of two to four millimeters. these cannulas actually allow us to do a finerjob of actually doing sculpting. we take more time to do the procedure, however,we tend to get better results and have less irregularities than traditional liposuction.we have even taken patients that have had

traditional liposuction, with irregularities,and repaired their defects. how does the procedure work? after the installationof the tumescent fluid into the fat, we wait approximately a half hour. this allows usto develop a profound anesthesia. once we have determined that we have achieved theappropriate anesthetic affect, we begin the procedure.the first part of the procedure involves smartlipo. we use the small smartlipo catheter and placeit under the skin through the incisions that we already have made. we use that at thatpoint to begin the skin-tightening passes. as the laser passes under the skin it heatsthe lower layers of the skin. this causes some immediate contraction of collagen underthe skin and then also stimulates the skin

cells. the skin cells will begin in the nextseveral weeks to months to produce more collagen and more skin tightening. we then place thesmartlipo fiber in the deeper layers of fat. at this point, the smartlipo laser is usedto melt fat. as we pass it through the fat, we can actually hear the fat cells explodeand liquefy. we continue to do this until we get some good contours and we actuallysee fat returning from the incisions. once we have achieved a good amount of laserof the skin and fat, we then begin the aspiration. we use the microcannulas we talked about before,to begin to suction the fat. as we suction the fat, we can keep track of the contoursof your body. we can even have you stand up. that is also another advantage over traditionalliposuction, as you are asleep in the operating

room, you cannot stand up. however, we canstand you up and check our results and continue to work on any problem areas. this is a tremendousadvantage, since you will judge the results and be judged as you are standing, not asyou are lying on an operating table. once we feel we have achieved the resultsthat we set out to obtain, the procedure is then completed. the small incisions that wemade at the beginning of the procedure are left open. these will act as drains for thenext several days, to allow that anesthetic fluid and melted fat to drain from the areathat we worked on. the faster that this fluid drains, the faster that you will recover.how many treatments does it take to get good results? smartlipo laser liposuction is designedto be a one-time treatment. we laser your

skin and we remove the fat during the procedure.when you leave the procedure, the fat that we removed is off your body. it is no longerthere. you can still gain weight, the weight will go to other areas of your body, but youwill probably not gain weight at that area we worked on. if necessary, in the future,we can always do touch up treatments as needed. what areas can be treated? smartlipo laserliposuction is safe to use on almost every area of the body. common areas are the abdomen,the flanks, the buttocks, the thighs, the arms, and under the chin and neck. however,we can access a fatty area on almost any part of the body safely. several areas of the bodycan be combined in one treatment session. however, we have to be aware of the risksof giving too much lidocane, and the time

of the procedure. there is a maximum amountof lidocane in the tumescent anesthetic that we can give you in one sitting. if we go overthis, we must stop the procedure. it is safer that we sometimes split up the body areasinto different sessions. if the procedure takes over several hours in length, most proceduresare usually around three hours in length and we also defer to another procedure since thiswill be more comfortable for you. what is the recovery period? the traditionalrecovery period of smartlipo laser liposuction is usually three to four days. you will havesignificant swelling and drainage for the first several days. the drainage ceases asthe incisions heal. the incisions are not sutured and heal on their own. you are puton some antibiotics after the procedure to

help prevent infection. you are also givenpain medicine after the procedure to prevent any unwanted pain after the procedure. thegood thing with the tumescent anesthesia is that you are numb as you go home from theprocedure. however, you will feel pain later. most patients can go back to work within threeto four days of their procedure and resume normal activities within the first week.how do i choose a smartlipo laser liposuction surgeon? that is a difficult question. thereare many people doing this procedure. i feel the best strategy is to do your homework.research the doctor, look at his results, meet the doctor in person, and discuss whatyour needs are, and how he can help you. he should be able to produce pictures of patientsand actual results and explain the procedure

and answer your questions thoroughly.i hope i have been able to help answer some of the common questions regarding the smartlipolaser liposuction. i encourage you to call us and make a consultation with either meor one of my nurses. our consultations are always free. we will be happy to discuss everyaspect of this procedure and show you our own before-and-after pictures. please makesure to do your homework before this procedure, to know what you are getting into and to knowhow to choose the appropriate physician to perform the procedure. thank you.