“I need an honest opinion. Should I have laser liposuction?”
July 29th, 2009 Dr. McKaneI received an email today that I would like to share with you. “I’m thinking about undergoing liposuction. I’ve read about CoolLipo, LipoLite, SmartLipo, and the Neira 4L laser. There seems to be a lot technology out there. I need an honest opinion. Should I have laser liposuction?”
Within the past ten to fifteen years, there have been many technologies developed to augment liposuction. These have included power assisted, ultrasound assisted, and more recently, laser assisted liposuction. In laser liposuction, a laser device is either applied internally with probes or externally through the patient’s skin. The laser devices are expensive to develop and to buy and because of this they are heavily marketed by both the manufacturer and the physicians using them in an attempt to recover these costs. The laser devices are touted to be “less invasive,” to improve recovery, and to provide better results than the other non laser liposuction technologies. To be honest with you, these are substantial claims that in my mind have not been adequately evaluated.
I don’t want to identify any one of these products specifically, so I will be general in my opinions about this. First, to claim that a laser assisted liposuction technology is non invasive or less invasive is completely false. Don’t be fooled into the idea that because the incision at the skin’s surface is small, that these procedures are not invasive. When you’re dealing with a 1 or 2 mm cannula (probe), of course the incision is going to be small. However, the fact of the matter is that a metal rod or wire is still inserted beneath the skin to deliver laser energy to the tissues being treated. This tissue is then effectively burned and the size of this burn corresponds to the area being treated. This area of trauma is far larger than the small incision used to create it. Furthermore, depending on the technology that you are dealing with and the size of the area being treated, the cannulae may be too small to allow adequate fat removal and so more conventional cannulae may be used to actually remove the fat. As much as the manufacturer would like you to believe it, this is by no means non invasive or less invasive. That idea is purely semantics. Any form of liposuction is by its nature an invasive procedure. To support claims about improved recovery and better results with laser technologies, clinical trials that were randomized and double blinded would need to be conducted. I may be wrong about this, but I don’t think that this will ever occur. At this point, these claims remain subjective and anecdotal at best.
So to answer the question, “Should I have laser liposuction?” Consider it, but realize that it may not be everything that it is supposed to be. Other, non- laser liposuction technologies are also safe and effective when used by experienced surgeons.
Our websites www.beauty-surgeon.com and www.drmckane.com have additional information and before and after photographs of liposuction procedures for review. I invite you to schedule a consultation with me if you would like to learn more about any of the liposuction technologies available for your surgery. Please feel free to contact our office at (713) 661-5255 if you have any questions.
-Brice W. McKane, M.D.