Liposuction

Women and men who are not overweight but have isolated areas of fat that they cannot get rid of through diet and exercise are good candidates for liposuction. Liposuction is not effective for cellulite.

Liposuction can be effective on many areas of the body: arms, abdomen, hips, thighs, calves, ankles, and under the chin.

You are more likely to get good results from this procedure if your skin has good tone and elasticity which helps to achieve a smooth result following fat suctioning.

Your plastic surgeon will assess the quality of your skin and may ask you how your areas of localized fat were affected by weight loss in the past. Fat is removed by first inserting a small tube (a cannula) through tiny incisions close to the area to be suctioned. Incisions are very small - usually under a quarter inch.

Though infrequent, some complications include bleeding, infection and reaction to anesthesia. Skin numbness is to be expected and is usually only temporary. It is possible, however, for some numbness to persist or even be permanent. Occasionally, there is skin discoloration in the areas that have been treated. Irregularities of the skin surface, including depressions or wrinkling, can occur.

You may be asked to wear a compression garment for the first several days after surgery so that the tissue can "learn" its new shape.

You can usually return to work in just a few days, though you may still have some swelling and bruising which usually subsides within a couple of weeks.

It is not uncommon for a touchup to be required later to further improve an area that has been liposuctioned.