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Liposuction Risks

This is a 39-year-old female following abdominal etching and VASER liposuction of the flanks, lower back, left breast medial pole tightening, right central pole tightening, right breast fat grafting, and RENUVION skin tightening of the back and breast.

Liposuction risks include numb skin, a hematoma, skin loss, and a lung clot. Fluid stays under 5 liters, and buttock fat transfer raises the clot risk. At SurgiSculpt® in Newport Beach, our surgeons tailor each plan with artistry, proven protocols, and patient safety as the priority.

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Body Contouring — #SS163

Case Summary

This article features patient #SS163. View patient profile

Services performed

Services overview

This patient’s surgical plan included: high-definition liposuction of abdomen, lateral thighs, flanks, lower back, fat grafting to the buttocks, left breast medial pole tightening, right central pole tightening, right breast fat grafting, and J plasma skin tightening of the back and breast.

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Liposuction Risks

Liposuction risks from minor side effects to major events

Liposuction risks range from minor side effects to major events. Choosing an operation means understanding the benefits and the risks. Removal of fat can change the outer appearance by clearing concern areas, and that change is tied to a gain in self-confidence. Procedures that remove fat deposits carry risks from volume shifts when generous tumescent liposuction fluid is used. The soft tissues are being manipulated, so poor skin elasticity and excess skin can pose their own challenges. A 360-degree circumferential approach widens the areas being treated, and that wider scope increases the risk attached to a cosmetic procedure. Plastic surgeons need to evaluate a person early so those risks can be anticipated.

Body Contouring — #SS163

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39-year-old female 3 months following high-definition abdominal liposuction that included ultrasound assistance and the use of helium plasma-based radiofrequency skin tightening.

The complications also depend on the technique that is chosen. The options named are traditional liposuction, ultrasound-assisted liposuction, power-assisted liposuction, and Laser liposuction. A separate complication list is not given for each of those four. The technique is said to affect the complications, and the only gentler claim is reserved for VASER liposuction when the concern is the skin.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons lists a change in skin sensation that may persist, and damage to deeper structures such as blood vessels and abdominal organs, among the risks of liposuction. Those two items are the overlap with this account. The sensation wording here is not the same pair of clocks, and the deeper structures named here are not the same list.

The most frequent liposuction risks

The most frequent liposuction risks in the list are numbness or hypersensitivity, a hematoma, skin compromise, lidocaine toxicity, injury to deeper structures, and a pulmonary embolism.

Permanent numbness or hypersensitivity is the name on the nerve item, and that nerve item belongs with the liposuction risks that follow crosshatching. Liposuction uses a cannula with holes in the tip to suction out the fat. Uniform removal from a region is described as possible only by crosshatching. Crosshatching means the fat is removed through multiple approaches so that one area is treated as evenly as possible. Sensory nerves in that region can be irritated and severed. The mechanism sentence says the result is temporary hypersensitivity or even numbness. The item is titled as permanent, and the mechanism sentence says temporary. Both durations are stated, and they are not the same duration.

Uniform removal is why crosshatching is required. Multiple approaches are how a single region gets treated evenly. The cannula, with holes in the tip, is the instrument that suctions the fat. Irritated or severed sensory nerves are the reason sensation changes. Nothing in the nerve item picks one duration and drops the other.

Body Contouring — #SS163

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The service designations for this patient include HD Lipo, Renuvion, Breast Fat Grafting, and Abdominal Etching. 39-year-old female 3 months following high-definition abdominal liposuction that included ultrasound assistance and the use of helium plasma-based radiofrequency skin tightening.

A hematoma belongs with the liposuction risks that follow an injured vessel in the fat. Cannulas are forced through the layers under the skin to pierce the fat and retrieve it. Small and medium blood vessels that cross the fat layers can be injured. Blood can leak and form small or medium lakes of blood. That lake is the hematoma. Treatment may be needle aspiration, especially if pressure from the expanding lake of blood starts to compromise the skin.

The vessels at issue are the small and medium ones that travel through the fat, not a separate class of injury. The lake can be small or medium. Needle aspiration is the treatment named for it, and the reason to use that treatment is skin compromise from the pressure of the expanding blood.

Skin compromise and lidocaine in the tumescent fluid

Skin compromise belongs with the liposuction risks that follow loss of the blood supply to small areas of skin. The layer under the skin has to be crosshatched with fat-removing cannulas if the fat removal is going to be uniform. During comprehensive fat removal, arteries and veins can be injured until those small areas lose their vascular source. Avoiding smoking before the operation and after it is named as a way to minimize that risk. VASER liposuction is named as gentler on the tissues, and that gentler method is named as a way to reduce the same risk. When skin compromise is detected early, nitro paste can be applied on the skin to encourage blood flow to the region and to avoid possible skin death. No strength and no schedule are given for the nitro paste.

Smoking avoidance is named both before the operation and after it. The gentler claim is attached only to VASER liposuction, and only for this skin risk. Early detection is the condition for using nitro paste. The paste is topical, and its job in this account is more blood flow to the region so that skin death can be avoided.

Lidocaine toxicity belongs with the liposuction risks tied to the tumescent fluid. It may occur if too much lidocaine is used. Lidocaine is described as an essential element of the tumescent solution, and that solution is infiltrated into the fat layers before they are suctioned. Too much fluid is tied to the same toxicity. Safe infiltration volumes are kept under 5 liters. The symptoms listed are numbness around the mouth or tongue, a metallic taste, dizziness, visual or auditory distortion, disorientation, and drowsiness.

Body Contouring — #SS163

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From this angle, the Breast Fat Grafting result is easier to follow. 39-year-old female 3 months following high-definition abdominal liposuction that included ultrasound assistance and the use of helium plasma-based radiofrequency skin tightening.

Two triggers are named, and they are not given as a recipe. One trigger is too much lidocaine. The other is too much of the fluid that carries it, with safe infiltration volumes kept under 5 liters. The symptom list stops at mouth or tongue numbness, a metallic taste, dizziness, distorted sight or hearing, disorientation, and drowsiness.

Deeper injury and a clot in the lung vessels

Injury to deeper structures belongs with the liposuction risks described as theoretical. The reason given is that cannulas remove fat forcibly. The structures named are larger vessels, the diaphragm, organs, or intestinal structures. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons names damage to deeper structures such as blood vessels and abdominal organs. The diaphragm and the intestinal structures are named in the risk list above. They are not attributed to that society list.

Theoretical is the word used for this injury. Forcible passage of the cannula is the reason the risk is raised. Larger vessels, the diaphragm, organs, and intestinal structures are the four items in the list. Blood vessels and abdominal organs are the overlapping items from the society list. Nerves, muscles, and lungs are not added from that list into this one.

A pulmonary embolism belongs with the liposuction risks that can lead to death. It is described as clogging of the major arteries and veins that supply the lungs. The path given is fat cells that enter the bloodstream, travel to the lung vessels, wedge there, and clog the blood supply to the lungs. MedlinePlus describes a fat embolism as tiny globules of fat in the bloodstream that block blood flow to tissue. The lung clog, the possibility of death, and a higher incidence when liposuction is done at the same time as fat transfer to the buttocks are the details in this account. Those three details are separate from that definition.

The arteries and veins that supply the lungs are the vessels named in the clogging description. Fat cells in the bloodstream are the material that travels, wedges, and clogs. Death is named as a possible result. The higher incidence is tied only to simultaneous liposuction and fat transfer to the buttocks. No other setting is given for that increase.

Body Contouring — #SS163

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#SS163 is shown here in a closer clinical frame. 39-year-old female 3 months following high-definition abdominal liposuction that included ultrasound assistance and the use of helium plasma-based radiofrequency skin tightening.

Caution should be taken to avoid liposuction risks, in the same way caution applies to surgical risks in general.

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