Liposuction is generally the second most popular cosmetic procedure performed in the United States, it is close to becoming the #1 actually. It is mostly performed on women, men are starting to get into that too, about 20 to 30% of the patient population that we perform liposuction on are men, so don't feel out of place if you are a male. #2, we can do liposuction on almost any area of the body, almost any area of the body including the face, neck, chest, abdomen, sides, upper and lower back, and legs and arms. It is pretty much almost everywhere. The areas that most are going to benefit from liposuction are generally the trunk, the abdomen, love handles, lower back, upper back, the outer thighs, incredible. A lot of patient, many of the patients that come in they have what we call saddle bag deformity or saddle bags and it is unbelievable what can really be accomplished with liposuction with the recontouring. The key is for example, the body of the woman is like an hour glass and the idea of the liposuction procedure is to recreate that hour-glass figure for the patient, so it not just a matter of suction, it is not what you take away that matters, it is what you leave behind as a surgeon for the patient, so what I would try to do and I have trained all my surgical associates to perform is to create a very appropriate contour, so that the individual really has an enhanced body figure. What we do is not just liposuction, but is liposculpting and there is also micro liposculpting using the very small cannulas so that we can really refined outcome very fine result and that is really the key to our success as liposuction surgeons at the New Me Institute and that is why we get a lot of referrals, that's our secret. Taking care of you and giving you the best possible cosmetic outcome possible in our hands.
The other thing is that male breast or chest contouring is another area of interest for a lot of the males that come in, sometimes patient as a result of ageing and/or gaining weight, they will lose that flat muscular look, and so we can recreate that using liposuction or liposculpting, better describes it. Basically there are also facial liposuction or lipocontouring and liposculpting procedures that we perform. The chin area, double chin, neck, face, also arms and legs as well of course, we do that, so the bottom line is in every area of the body we can sculpt and create a very appropriate figure for you. The key is, for the area that we liposuction to be feathered in and fit with the rest of the figure so that it does not just look like we sucked out fat, but it looks like you have obtained a much more appropriate figure overall and everything fits in more beautifully after the procedure is performed and the healing time is complete. Basically maximum of 5 liters 10 pounds roughly a fat is what we feel is safe, I tried to say somewhat below that level, if patients need more than 5 liters or 10 pounds then I would break it into two procedures. The bottom line is this is cosmetic surgery, this is an elected surgery and key is safety. We do not want to jeopardize your well being and your health, so definitely we will try to do whatever it takes to make sure you get a safe, excellent outcome, depends on the individual, sometimes 2 inches, sometimes 2 sizes, 3 sizes and I have had patient who come in and they really are amazed as to how much improvement they have gotten. All depends on your particular needs, depends on your body structure, depends on your musculoskeletal level, amount of fat, your shape, so on and so forth, so no two patients are alike, so if your twin sister gets the same procedure that you are getting, you may get two different outcomes and that is to say you are normal.
The techniques are different, there are 3 different major technique of liposuction, one of which is the most safe, most popular, and most preferred at the New Me Surgical Institute at this time, 2004 almost 2005. The techniques are one; is the traditional liposuction at which we point we use to just inject the area with numbing medicine and use special instruments to take or extract fat from that area. The procedure ended resulting in a lot of blood loss and a lot of complications that were commonly seen at the time were associated with the blood loss with that technique, we do no do that anymore, so do not worry about that, you won't have any problems with that blood loss issue or other complications you may have heard about with liposuction. We do what we call tumescent liposuction. Tumescent liposuction is safe, is one of the most safe procedures performed today. It is one of the most common procedures performed today in cosmetic surgery. It entails introduction of some medicine into the fatty tissue that contains numbing medication and some epinephrine which clamps down on blood vessels and so on and so forth and some other things that basically the goal of which is to of course numb the area and also minimize to almost nil, the loss of blood from the area, so it does render the procedure very safe and very pain free. Matter of fact what is amazing is that a lot patients about 95% of the patients that I give pain medicine to bring back the bottle and say Dr. Shane I did not take any, what you want me to do with these. So, they describe the pain just sort of like the discomfort that one feels when they go to the gym, sort of muscle ache, you know, soreness but not really pain, 0-10 as I had described before in some other segments of the video pain, the worse pain being fracture of the bone, hip or arm, or you know surgery in the pelvis or abdomen being 10. This pain is a 2, you know, very very minimal, so pain is not an issue with most liposuction. Complications are minimal. Blood loss is usually not a case at all. Infection is very very minimal, I have rarely had any infection and even if they do occur, they usually get resolved with simple antibiotic treatment. You are on preventative antibiotics before the procedure in the operating room and after the procedure, so that is another issue that we preventatively address and so most patients, almost all patients do not suffer from the infection at all, very uncommon. There are no other complications associated with liposuction that are of any concern overall. There is some sort of transitional irregularity and that is because of inflammation that is associated with liposuction. There is some, we call lumpy bumpy feeling, you know sort of feeling of swelling in certain areas and that is basically associated with the swelling of the muscle or the tissues underneath. It resolves overtime. The patients get instruction as to how to have massage and so on performed on them either by themselves or significant other or otherwise and that helps a lot especially if you do it on a frequent basis as we describe it. There are some things you can take for the bruising that you may experience, like SinEcch, which is basically SinEcch is a medication or homeopathic medication or remedy that has shown to have some effect on bruising, if you chose Arnica montana, if you chose to do that if not that would be fine, again make sure everything is done under the supervision of your surgeon either myself or one of my associates that have been trained here at the New Me Institute, so ask if you have any questions. There is vitamin C, zinc and so on that we do recommend afterwards, but that is at least two weeks out or so that I recommended, so do not start unless you have gotten an approval from the doctor that is treating you. Antibiotics treatment as I said, you do need to be continuing your antibiotic treatment, if you have any questions or issues or you don't like to take antibiotics make sure you address that ahead of time. I do not recommend you having the procedure unless you are willing to take antibiotics, so I have patients that say I don't like taking antibiotics that is part of the course as far as I prefer, but do talk to us if you have preference otherwise, we can make modifications to your regimen. Other basically are, that you need to be wearing a girdle or a tight garment we call it, it is a stretchy sort of leotard, sort of outfit that hugs your body as if it were and just sort of keeps the skin and the muscle attached really tightly so there is no room for fluid collection. The fluid needs to come out when we put the fluid in, it needs to be squeezed out, there are little perforations and incisions that we make, very very small, the scars are almost invisible after the procedure is done and healed, almost invisible scarring, we tried to make the scars the most inconspicuous areas that we can place them, hair line or folds or belly button, etc, so you hardly will ever suffer from any scarring with liposuction. There is almost no deformity that is associated with a normal liposuction after it is healed and over all it is a very very safe procedure that had a tremendous satisfaction rate and you know in our practice, the patients not only have these procedures but they bring their significant others or else you know their loved ones to have these procedures, because they are so pain free and the rewards are so great. The other thing that needs to be addressed is postoperative healing.
The postoperative healing with liposuction is expected to be couple of days of downtime, because of the fluid drainage and so on, after which the patients usually go back to their routine activity. People can go back to the gym in about a week or so, almost doing all aerobic exercises, the only thing I do not recommend personally and again some of the surgeons that you may have consulted before may think otherwise, but I personally and our surgeons here at the New Me Institute don't recommend you going back to sit-ups or abdominal crunches at least for three months after, just because of the possible irregularities that it may cause in that area, you have to make sure you pulled your garment up and maintain that real flat contour to the garment, so that it would help the skin redraping, the abdomen in a flat nice way.
What are the things that the individual who is going to be caring for you the night of surgery and yourself need to be aware of and comfortable with is the fact that you are going to have some drainage from the areas of liposuction where we have placed a fluid inside the fatty tissue through the openings, the fluid will be coming out and the fluid is somewhat reddish, it is not bleeding, don't worry, don't panic. The difference between bleeding and the fluid drainage is, as you know obviously blood clots, so the clotting would tell you it is bleeding. If there is any clotting when the fluid comes out and it is very red in consistency then it is bleeding and you need to be contacting us and talk to one of the surgeons here or the surgeon who did the procedure. If the fluid is reddish in consistency and color, but it is fluidy and sort of more like pink in color, it is normal. It is very rare, I have never had anybody actually have frank bleeding, never, it is very rare, almost nil, none, to have bleeding unless there is some kind of an injury. It is very rare, we have never had this, so do not worry. It is really almost unheard of complication at the New Me Surgical Institute as of this time, 2004 almost 2005. And in most facilities, this is not something that will happen.
The other is, you need to obviously prepared for the fluid drainage and so you can have adult diapers, you know, I guess they are Depends, they are called Depends, or you could have other type of absorbant material or dresses or outfits or coverings that you could obtain, stocks and so on and then those will help you, so you could have plenty of those around because you know it could be plenty with the fluid that drains and you don't want to, you know to have them affect your clothing and or they possibly __________ car going home or your bedding and so on. It usually takes about six months of healing, basically between the time the procedure is performed and the time that you get the final result. What does that mean, it means that from the day that you get the procedure, you get the drainage and the fluid that drains for a couple of days, 36-hours to 48 hours, after which the body starts to swell without really much pain, but there is some inflammation and swelling that sets in. There is some swelling of the muscles, swelling of the fatty tissues, so you may not immediately lose weight if you go on a scale and you may not necessarily look great in your clothes, because your are still swelling and so that may take about three or four months and then times goes, the swelling is going to subside really ultimately and by the sixth month everything is healed, so you get that final refined outcome, so if its three months later and you feel like you are even bigger than you started with, you know don't worry, you have still got healing ahead of you. Even some patients after six months, they have still got healing again. No two patients are alike and you know everybody is unique and so it depends on basically healing capacity and your own health level and body morphology and so on and so forth. In conclusion, basically the postoperative care of the liposuction is very simple, as long as you wear your garment as instructed by your surgeon specifically for several weeks after the procedure. You abstain from doing abdominal crunches or sit ups for at least three months, you do take your antibiotics regularly as your instructed to do so, you do make sure that your garment is nicely tight against your abdomen and the skin so that it creates that flat nice contour and redraping of the abdomen and skin as necessary, you do continue to massage three times a day as you are instructed to do so, pretty much the postoperative course will be event free, nice, smooth, and without any complications, so it is an excellent procedure to be considered.
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