Lipolaser, the technological evolution of liposuction

Liposuction assisted by laser or lipolaser is a technologically advanced liposuction. It is not a thinning technique, but it is a body remodeling or liposculpture, since it regulates the thickness of the subcutaneous cellular tissue or fat in all areas of the body.

The lipolaser is a laser machine with two wavelengths, one of them specific for fat and the other with affinity for collagen in the skin. The main differences with respect to a classic mechanical liposuction are in terms of achieving the elimination of fat: it is performed more uniformly and less aggressively, by heating and liquefying it. This makes the response of the organism less aggressive and the patient becomes less inflamed, fewer bruises because the heat coagulates the vessels and less irregularities occur in the skin, because the fibrous tracts are released when passing the fiber optic of the laser. This lower aggressiveness will make the incorporation to his habitual life more rapid, in three or four days.

But, undoubtedly the main innovation in the treatment is that the additional heating of the collagen of the skin is a very powerful stimulus to improve the skin flaccidity, which makes that there is a better adaptation of the same having removed a lot of volume in the treated area .

The ideal patient is one who has a localized fat accumulation with flaccidity, that is, the patient to whom you would indicate a classic liposuction, because it has been proven that the flaccidity created by the surgeon with the removal of the fat when applying the laser on the skin, it reabsorbs it and stays stuck and perfectly defined. But, outside the ideal condition, we have found in our clinic that we can do liposculpture and improve the shape and volume in patients in whom it would be unthinkable to perform a classic liposuction, as for example in patients after significant weight loss, in poorer quality skins , in jowls, in the inner face of arms with sagging ...

It is a minimally invasive technique because we are working on the surface and through entry points of 1-2 mm, but it must be done in an operating room under ideal conditions of sterility.. It must be taken into account that the first optical fiber and the aspiration cannula are then passed through the skin. A good anesthetic or sedation will also be necessary because the skin is an organ very sensitive to heat, and the laser is providing a high caloric energy.

After the procedure the patient goes home, no hospital admission is required. I call this surgery "patience surgery", since the results are expected between 3 and 4 months, but the patient will continue to improve throughout the first year, especially flaccidity.

As liposuction technique can not be compared with classic liposuction, it is an important technological step and the results are undoubtedly much better. As a treatment for flaccidity there is more variability in the response, which probably depends on genetic factors of the skin, something similar to what happens with scars.

The only risk of this technique in my opinion is that the patient has false expectations about the result, so the surgeon must make a correct assessment and explain perfectly what can be achieved and what is not. The index of "happy patients", with the results is higher than 80%, and from my point of view we all achieve a real improvement.

At the present time, we have been conducting lipolaser for more than three years in our D & S Dexeus clinic, probably the plastic surgeon with the most cases and experience in this innovative technique.