Liposuction

Needs for the surgery:

You asked to me whether it was possible to correct the aspect of your silhouette which you find unpleasant due to the excess of fat (fatty tissue). It is the goal of the liposuction.

Its results are spectacular, especially because it is carried out on patients with elastic, tonic, skin which return to its former shape after the fat is removed. But you should understand that liposuction will not treat the effects of infiltration (orange peel skin), and that it will not change the skin’s aspect. Any irregular surface of skin present before the intervention will stay after the liposuction.

Excesses of fat are mainly located in certain parts of the body: riding breeches, hips, love handles, on the waist, abdomen, thighs, the internal areas of the knees, buttocks, chin and neck.
Liposuction can be associated with other surgical operations (abdominal surgery, face lift).
You must know that the fat that I will remove will not subsequently come back on certain areas later on.
During the consultation, I will check the elasticity of your skin, which is variable according to the age and body zones and we will discuss an eventual lipoaspiration.

Before the surgery:

A preoperative and photographic assessment will be carried out.
I will give you an ordinance for a panthy. It will imperatively have to be tried on on the spot, to make sure it is appropriate.
You should choose your usual size.

The surgery:

It consists of the removal of excess fat. It will be aspirated by means of a nozzle inserted into the skin using very small incisions (less than 1 cm) which I will dissimulate in a natural cutaneous fold.

This operation has the major advantage of leaving only very small scars which will attenuate, even disappear with time.
I will operate using either local anaesthesia (for a limited liposuction) or under general anaesthesia (several zones to treat, large-scale liposuction) that will then require hospitalization for the night in the clinic. The panthy will be fitted at the end of the intervention, and will act as a compression bandage, thus decreasing the postoperative swelling due to the liposuction.

After the surgery:

You will be able to walk and move shortly after the intervention, but you will be constrained during eight days in the case of large-scale liposuction.
You will come for a consultation after a week, without your girdle. The small stitches will fall away spontaneously two weeks after the intervention.
You will have to wear the panthy for a month, day and night.

The bruises will disappear after two or three weeks, and the oedema (swelling) after two to three months, that’s when you will be able to appreciate the final result.

Any violent sports, like tennis, as well as a strong exposure to the sun are to be avoided for a month.

Which elements can worry you during the period after the surgery:

1. An major swelling can sometimes occur, particularly on the feet. This oedema generally disappears in a few days.

2. A prolonged calf pain (pain causing insomnia, exaggerated by the pressure) can lead to phlebitis, if you have had a major lipoaspiration.
A preventive treatment is generally administered. Nevertheless, do not hesitate to contact me or your anaesthetist if you have the slightest doubt.

3. A difference in volume between your two thighs or two points of an aspirated zone can worry you during the first weeks. It is very often due to a bruise which will disappear of its own accord. If a small irregularity persists after a few months (6 months), a final improvement of the lipoaspiration can be carried out, often under local anaesthesia.

Ultrasound lipostructure or lipostructure:

Invented in Italy, it was developed and was improved in France.
It is an improvement in the technology of liposuction, which makes it possible to operate on patients that I would have refused to treat with the traditional technique, particular for women in their forties, with skin which will find its original shape only with great difficulty.
This technique is gentler, less traumatising.
The fat is selectively destroyed by the use of ultrasound.
The post-operative issues are simpler.

+ + + But the liposuction with the use of ultrasound does not allow “face lifts” of the skin as you have perhaps read in women’s magazines.

Surface liposuction:

This operation makes it possible to approach the skin and to have an action on zones which do not present a localised excess fat (such as riding breeches), but a diffuse fat thickening (neck and face, foreside of the thighs, umbilical area of the abdomen).

We use extremely fine nozzles (1,5 to 3 mms in diameter), which allow a harmonious cutaneous redrapage.

This technique also makes it possible to decrease the cellulitic aspect of the skin.
You should know that the “orange peel” or caption aspects of the skin will not disappear completely.

Rotary nozzle or lipo-soft:

This is a recent technique, used for certain very hard and very compact fat patches, which are difficult to suck up.
This technique makes it possible to work carefully, with more regular results at the cutaneous level.
It is possible for us to use this technique for very wide liposuctions, but it is still too early to know whether it is truly efficient or not...