Liposuction aims at getting you that dream physique in a short span of less than a month. However, according to a survey conducted by the plastic surgeons, liposuction has the largest number of complications (even resulting in death in some cases) as compared to any other form of cosmetic surgery. Several factors may decide the success or failure of a liposuction surgery. Here is a description of a thorough insight of the pros and cons of liposuction.
What is the science behind liposuction?
Liposuction is a type of cosmetic surgery, which results in an improved body contour. The surgery is targeted to remove the fat deposits between the skin and muscles, which further leads to improved body shape. In this surgery, a steel tube called cannula is connected to a high power suction pump. This tube is inserted through the skin in the specific body parts from where the fat has to be sucked out. The suction of fat leaves behind small tunnels in the fat deposit, which further, during the healing process, contract and hence result in an improved body contour. However, getting a liposuction done is not an easy task. Firstly, it requires a lot of money and secondly, it requires a lot of will power, as there is a certain diet and exercise routine that you have to follow post-surgery. Besides these, you really need to be sure whether you have chosen the right surgeon or not. The right surgeon can give you the right counseling and consultation prior to the surgery.
Pros:
- In case you have been exercising while maintaining a healthy diet intake for a good period of time, but still have not seen a change in your physical appearance, liposuction could be a rescue, since it can haste up the entire process and give you the desired results in a span of merely two weeks.
- The belly fat (stomach and abdomen fat), which is not so easy to get rid off, may be removed easily without much pain if you undergo a liposuction surgery.
- You can specifically choose the area in your body, which needs liposuction. This is probably the biggest advantages of liposuction surgery. Choosing the precise part of your body from where the fat is to be removed which could be a great way to achieve your desired body contour quickly.
- The prime motivational factor for patients undergoing a liposuction surgery is that through the surgery, the fat cells are removed from the targeted parts of the body (except for a few cases elaborated later). It has also been observed that the operated parts have rare tendencies of growing back the fat cells in future.
Cons:
- Too much of liposuction in a single day can cause serious body complications, which could be dangerous. A human body can undergo a certain amount of liposuction in a single day’s attempt. Only a good surgeon can evaluate this factor and perform surgery in three to four a session with a gap of about a fortnight within each session. However, the chances of these evaluations going wrong still prevail.
- Going through another form of cosmetic surgery on the day (or on a close period) you got the liposuction done can be fatal. A good cosmetic surgeon will never encourage any such action.
- Liposuction may be a quick way to get rid of body fat, but the surgery is followed by a long time of healing period during which the scars and marks developed at the time of surgery may persist. This has been observed as the biggest of all drawbacks that the patients complain about. Besides, the restoration of normal elasticity in the skin of the operated area may take up to six months of time. This could even involve cases where one might have extra layers of skin sagging down. In several cases, it was observed that this extra skin had to be again removed by conducting yet another surgery to restore the normal skin.
- In cases of chronically overweight or obese people, liposuction could not be as useful a deal, as it could be for normal weighing persons. In such cases, the fat cells are not removed completely since liposuction only targets a small part of the whole body. Moreover, as a serious drawback, if, after the surgery, one fails to maintain a proper diet, the fat intake could lead to growth and deposition of fat cells in other parts of the body except for the operated part. This can further lead to a drastically absurd body contour. There, however, are other forms of surgical and dietary solutions available for such cases.
- There are risks of rare, but potentially serious complications that may occur as a side effect of the entire process. The most common of these may be:
- Pulmonary thromboembolism: This is a heavy blood clot in the lungs, which may be caused as a general side effect of anesthesia or if the person being operated is obese.
- Infections: Failure of appropriate sterilization of the equipment involved and exposures can lead to serious infections that could even be fatal.
- Swelling of body parts: Temporary swelling of body parts are normal after the process of liposuction but it could cause internal injuries and complications if an appropriate bed rest is avoided.
- Drug reaction: If the patient is not correctly tested for reactions against the drugs that are used within the process, their bodies may have chances of developing serious reactions, which can again lead to serious complications.
- Nerve injury: Although nerve damage is considered a risk in almost any surgery, the risk still prevails and has to be taken care of.
In many cases, it has been observed that patients also react differently to everyday drugs such warfarin, aspirin, etc after the surgery, which may depend on several biological factors and may not persist in every case.