Liposuction - Tumescent Liposuction

With tumescent liposuction, our patients have never required hospitalization, blood transfusion, nor have there been any infections or other serious complications.

Dr. Wasserman's philosophy that the safest approach is to avoid the most dangerous drugs, while at the same time being well prepared and trained to take care of any potential emergency.

Tumescent Technique Is Less Painful Than General Anesthesia

Some patients have had liposuction by another surgeon using general anesthesia prior to having liposuction by tumescent liposuction. Virtually every one of these patients has said that liposuction by tumescent liposuction is a dramatically less painful experience than with general anesthesia. With tumescent liposuction, infiltrating the local anesthesia is associated with minimal discomfort. Once the area has been completely numbed, surgery in the area is essentially painless. In addition, because the local anesthesia persists in the treated area for more than 12 hours, there is no pain immediately after the surgery.

Risks of Any Surgery

As with any surgical procedure, liposuction is associated with certain common side-effects such as bruising, swelling and temporary numbness. Although irregularities of the skin are possible following liposuction, this side-effect is minimized by tumescent liposuction. When using larger cannulas occasionally there were patients with an irregularity of the skin. Since using micro cannulas, noticeable irregularities are very rare.

Because of the slow resolution of post surgical swelling, the ultimate results following liposuction usually require 12 to 16 weeks to become fully apparent. Nevertheless, patients can usually see dramatic improvements within two to four weeks after surgery.

Although the results of liposuction are often quite spectacular, it is not realistic to expect perfection. Liposuction of the thighs, while improving the silhouette, does not necessarily eliminate the subtle "puckering" of the skin that is often referred to as "cellulite." Liposuction with tumescent liposuction does reduce the degree of cellulite but it is unlikely to eliminate it.

As judged by current world-wide experience, liposuction is amazingly safe. To the best of our knowledge, there have never been any reported serious complications using tumescent liposuction for liposuction totally by local anesthesia.

Rare problems that can potentially occur with any surgical procedure include infections, bleeding and nerve injury. Tumescent liposuction minimizes these risks.

Decreased Risks of Infection with Tumescent Technique

Infections are extremely rare, irrespective of whether or not the anesthetic technique is that of general anesthesia or local anesthesia. Although there have been reports in the medical literature of patients who have had serious infection following liposuction surgery, to the best of our knowledge there has never been any patients who have had an infection following liposuction totally by local anesthesia using tumescent liposuction. Lidocaine, the local anesthetic that is used for tumescent liposuction kills bacteria. With tumescent liposuction the areas that are being treated surgically are exactly the areas that will receive the local anesthetic that kills bacteria.

Better and Smoother Results

The large volumes of dilute local anesthetics infiltrated into the fatty tissue causes the tissue to become swollen and firm, or tumescent. Tumescent liposuction magnifies the fatty area that is to be treated by liposuction. If there is an area that has not been completely treated, this is more easily detected because the area is swollen and enlarged. Thus the risk of post-surgical irregularities and unevenness is minimized.

With tumescent liposuction very small cannulas are used. This permits a more delicate and gentle approach to liposuction. The liposuction cannulas which have been specifically designed for tumescent liposuction are 2.0 to 3.0 mm in diameter. These micro cannulas require a minimal amount of force in order to advance them into the fatty tissue. As a result, surgery is much more gentle and the surgeon can control the direction and position of the cannula with greater accuracy. The ultimate result is a greatly reduced risk of inadvertently approaching too close to the under surface of the skin and unintentionally causing irregularities.

The Scottsdale Cosmetic Health Insitute services the Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona area. Our facility is not only famous for Mesotherapy treatments, but is also renowned for its cutting edge medical and cosmetic procedures. For more information on tumescent liposuction please contact us.