52 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016
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Surgical Aesthetics
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GETTY
IMAGES
SURGICAL
AESTHETICS
LIPOSUCTION
SAFETY By Inga Hansen
There are several factors to consider when assessing the right
patient, anesthesia type and facility for your liposuction procedures.
LIPOSUCTION REMAINS
one of the most sought-after cosmetic
procedures in the U.S. While the
rate of adverse events is low, serious
complications can occur. "Once you
start doing large volume liposuction,
you end up with a lot of fl uid shifts,
and you can stress the cardiovascular
system and cause a lot of problems,"
says Miami-based plastic surgeon
Roger Khouri, MD.
Reducing the risks of liposuction
requires surgeons to consider
several factors, including the health
of the patient, the facility in which
the procedure will be performed
and the volume of fl uid to be both
infi ltrated and removed.
LIPOASPIRATE LIMITS
In September, researchers from
Northwestern University's Feinberg
School of Medicine published the
results of a retrospective study (Plastic
and Reconstrucive Surgery) conducted in
an effort to determine safe lipoaspirate
volume for liposuction procedures.
They reviewed 4,534 lipectomy cases
through the Tracking Operations and
Outcomes for Plastic Surgeons (TOPS)
database. "We wanted to see if there
were any top threshold values at which
the risk of complications increases," says
Karol Gutowski, MD, a plastic surgeon
in Chicago and one of co-authors of
the study. "We weren't able to fi nd a
certain point at which the complications
become prohibitive. We did fi nd that
it depends on a person's body mass.
A person with a higher BMI can tolerate
more removal than someone who is
lighter, and that kind of makes sense."