Liposuction | by Dr. Drew | Inspire Insights

Hey, Doctor Drew here from Inspire Cosmetic Surgery. I'm going to explain briefly what liposuction is. There's a lot of confusion as to what exactly is liposuction and who is a candidate for liposuction. There are different forms of liposuction but in general, it's all mainly the same. We're putting fluid into the soft tissues or fat under the skin. We're letting that sit for a little while and then we're suctioning that out. When we suction that out, it takes fat cells with it. The fat is in globules, and those globules get suctioned out, leaving a lot of the other structure behind.

In the liposuction, we try to conceal the incisions, so we tend to make tiny little incisions in strategic places that hide well, sometimes around the belly button, sometimes at the hip folds or groin crease. Then we actually insert a cannula into these areas. Once we insert that cannula we're able to instill a fluid called superwet, some called tumescent solution. The mixtures are a little bit different, but in general it has salt water, an anesthetic agent called Lidocaine and a hemostatic agent called Epinephrine. Epinephrine is a vasoconstrictor. It tightens down on the little tiny blood vessels and causes less bleeding during the procedure. Once we instill that solution we let that sit, often for about 20 minutes. After that 20 minutes, the solution has taken effect. It makes the patient more comfortable even if they're under anesthesia and then it also constricts those micro blood vessels in order for the bleeding to be minimized.

After that point, we take a liposuction cannula, they can be multiple different sizes or lengths and that cannula goes up under the skin, inside, into the fatty tissue. Those cannulas, depending on how long they are, can reach any length of tissue. Once that cannula is inside, we apply suction. That suction is enough to actually suction the globules of fat that sit under everybody's skin. Everybody has some fat, some people, obviously more than others.

Liposuction is not a fat losing procedure. It's not to make a heavy person skinny. Liposuction is a contouring procedure and it can contour. It can take down some bulk and volume in a patient but it is not a good weight loss procedure. It's a procedure to contour the body and as much as necessary of fat is removed and suctioned into a container. We can measure how much of that fat and fluid comes out. The fat and fluid separates so we can see how much supernatant or fat settles to the top and how much liquid settles to the bottom and then we know what our starting and stopping points are. Certain states have certain laws about how much can be taken out at one time and in one sitting.