Heard of Smart Lipo ?

Liposuction has a new technological innovation that is changing the face of body sculpture – Smart Lipo!  Like traditional methods of liposuction, SmartLipo enables you to shed fat quickly and easily; however Smart Lipo differs from conventional liposuction in some very key ways.  Smart Lipo relies on laser technology to melt your unwanted fat deposits, rather than knives and needles to extract the fat from your body.  Because only minimal incisions are made for Smart Lipo, there is less pain, which means less anesthesia is used and the recovery time is significantly reduced.  In fact, Many are calling SmartLipo the “Lunchtime Lipo” because of its convenience!  Smart Lipo is generally an outpatient procedure and can be done under local anesthesia.

When you are looking into Liposuction , be sure to find a doctor who is trained, certified and experienced enough to ensure a successful surgery.  Not many doctors are expert enough to perform the SmartLipo procedure, so be sure to find yourself a professional!

How does it actually work?  Smart Lipo is a procedure that uses laser energy to rupture and melt away your fat cells. The doctor will make very small incisions in the selected areas.  Tumescent fluid is then injected into the tissue through the tiny incisions to help minimize the pain and blood loss. At this point, a tiny tube (a mere 1-2 mm in diameter) is inserted into the skin’s incisions.  Within this tube there is a laser fiber which serves to rupture the fat cells so that they become an oily liquid which can more easily be drained away from the body. Additionally, the inner layers of skin are heated with the laser as well, which shrinking and tightening from the inside – leaving your skin firmer and more supple.  As the laser is moving through the body, it is also affecting the blood vessels in the area being treated; the heat causes them to coagulate, meaning less blood loss, bruising and swelling!

So how do you know if you are a good candidate for Smart Liposuction – or Smart Lipo?  Ideally, you are within 25 pounds of your ideal weight, as this procedure is more about sculpting and toning that weight loss. You are generally in good health, you exercise regularly and maintain a healthy diet.  If you have a specific problem area that just won’t improved despite changes in diet and exercise, Smart Lipo might be the perfect thing for you!  If you need to be back at work quickly and don’t have time to waste in recovery, Smart Lipo is definitely a good option for you.

The added benefits over traditional Liposuction makes Smart Lipo the smart choice for Liposuction !

Recovery After Liposuction

Make sure that you have all your medications, cold drinks, and towels at your bedside.
Most people are nauseated during the first 24-48 hours. To reduce this, we suggest that you take your nausea pill one hour before taking your pain pills or antibiotics. While it is good to drink plenty of liquids, please refrain from drinking plain water or acidic fruit juices because they will make you more nauseated.

Do not be alarmed when blood-tinged tumescent fluid oozes from your incision sites. This is a normal result of liposuction and usually stops within half a day. The surgeon leaves these tiny incisions exposed so that the liquid spills out, thereby minimizing bruising. You should cover your bed to avoid staining from this fluid.

Preparations for Liposuction Surgery

• If you are older than 45 years, or have heart disease, we require a pre-operative EKG, which would either be done by your internist, cardiologist, or at our facility. Heart disease and all other medical illnesses need to be monitored first by an internist or specialist.
• If you are anemic, or have a low blood count, please notify our office well in advance of surgery so that we can start you on Iron supplement. You cannot have liposuction if you are anemic.
• Pre-operative laboratory blood and urine tests are done usually within 10 days of your surgery date. If you do have health insurance this might be covered, otherwise, the laboratory will charge you.
• If you have specific medical illnesses, allergies, or physical handicaps, please notify our staff during your pre-operative visit.
• If you have had a history of forming blood clots in your legs, deep venous thrombosis (DVT), Pulmonary Embolism (PE), or are known to have hypercoagulability, you need to notify your surgeon prior to surgery, so that necessary precautions can be taken for your surgery.
• Please refrain from taking any Aspirin, Aleve, Advil, Motrin or other NSAID for ten days before your surgery. These drugs can increase the incidence of bleeding and bruising.
• Do not drink or eat after midnight, the night before your surgery. This means no coffee or breakfast on the morning of your surgery. You should take all your medications with a little water. If you have to take diabetic medication or insulin, be sure to have instructions from our office on how much of it to take the morning of surgery.
• Please remove and leave behind all jewelry, watches, and body rings before you come in for your surgery. Please do not wear any makeup or perfume.
• Before leaving home for your surgery, take one “nausea pill”- COMPAZINE – with a little water.
• Get all your prescriptions filled in advance of surgery, and bring ALL your medications with you on the day of surgery.
• Please wear comfortable and loose clothing the day of surgery. It would be helpful if you wear front open tops and loose sweat pants.
• We ask you to check the fit of your compression garment in advance and to bring it with you to surgery.
• Set up your bed in an area that is easily accessible and that you don’t have to climb multiple stairs. Have bunch of pillows or cushions available so that you can place them behind your back and under your knees after the surgery.
• You should make arrangements for a responsible adult friend or family member to take you home after surgery. You are not allowed to drive yourself home or take a taxi. After surgery, this caregiver is required to stay with you and to monitor and assist you for at least the first 24 hours after surgery. If you don’t have such a person please let us know in advance so that we can help you make arrangements for a stay at an after-care facility or hospital.

Rare and Severe Complications:

Embolism: This is also extremely rare and is lessened by early postoperative mobility so that blood does not have time to become stagnant in calf muscles. Fat embolism may occur when fat is loosened and enters the blood through blood vessels ruptured (broken) during liposuction. Pieces of fat get trapped in the blood vessels, gather in the lungs, or travel to the brain. The signs of pulmonary emboli (fat clots in the lungs) may be shortness of breath or difficulty breathing. If you have the signs or symptoms of fat emboli after liposuction, it is important for you to seek emergency medical care at once. Fat emboli may cause permanent disability or, in some cases, be fatal.

Visceral Perforations (puncture wounds in the organs): During liposuction, the physician is unable to see where the cannula, or probe, is. It is possible to puncture or damage internal organs during liposuction. This may happen, for instance, if the intestines are punctured during abdominal liposuction. When organs are damaged, surgery may be required to repair them. Visceral perforations may also be fatal.

Skin Necrosis (skin death): The skin above the liposuction area or at the site of stab wound incisions may become necrotic or “die.” This is more prevalent with Ultrasound Assistant Liposuction. When this happens, skin may change color and be sloughed (fall) off. Large areas of skin necrosis may become infected with bacteria or microorganisms.

Burns: During Ultrasound Assisted Liposuction, the ultrasound probe may become very hot and can cause burns.

Fluid Imbalance: Fat tissue, which contains a lot of liquid, is removed during liposuction. Also, physicians may inject large amounts of fluids during liposuction. This may result in a fluid imbalance. While you are in the physician’s office, surgical center or hospital, the staff will be monitoring you for signs of fluid imbalance. However, this may happen after you go home and can result in serious conditions such as heart problems, excess fluid collecting in the lungs, or kidney problems as your kidneys try to maintain fluid balance.

Toxicity from Anesthesia: Lidocaine, a drug that numbs the skin, is frequently used as a local anesthetic during liposuction. You may have had a similar drug, Novocaine, to numb your mouth at the dentist. Large volumes of liquid with lidocaine may be injected during liposuction. This may result in very high doses of lidocaine. We try to minimize the potential for Lidocaine toxicity by greatly limiting the extent of Lidocaine used during general anesthesia. The symptoms of this toxicity are lightheartedness, restlessness, drowsiness, tinnitus (a ringing in the ears), slurred speech, metallic taste in the mouth, numbness of the lips and tongue, shivering, muscle twitching and convulsions. Lidocaine toxicity may cause the heart to stop, resulting in death. In general, any type of anesthesia may cause complications and is always considered a risk during any surgery.

Fatalities Related to Liposuction: There are numerous reports of deaths related to the liposuction procedure. Studies conducted to date have not been definitive, so it is difficult to be sure how often death from liposuction occurs.

Some studies indicate that the risk of death due to liposuction is as low as three deaths for every 100,000 liposuction operations. However, other studies indicate that the risk of death is between 20 and 100 deaths per 100,000 liposuction procedures. One study suggests that the death rate is higher in liposuction surgeries in which other surgical procedures are performed simultaneously. In order to understand the extent of the risk, one study compares the deaths from liposuction to that for deaths from car accidents (16 per 100,000). It is important to remember that liposuction is a surgical procedure and that there may be serious complications, including death.

Changes in Skin Sensation:

Swelling: This is also a normal occurrence that occurs in every patient. Compression garments and post-operative massage help to minimize this, as well as reducing its duration to less than two months.

Bruising: There will be bruising in many areas that are liposuctioned, as well as in adjacent or dependent areas. For example, people who have abdominal liposuction experience swelling and bruising in their genitalia. This is not because these areas are actually liposuctioned. However, bruises usually move downward due to gravity, and can thus temporarily accumulate in the genitalia. Some bruising can last a long time or even lead to permanent skin pigmentation. Sun tanning immediately after surgery can cause these bruises to become permanent skin stains.

Skin Irregularities or Wrinkles: The extent of this depends on the elasticity of the suctioned skin areas. People who have many stretch marks, cellulite, or skin dimples have poor elasticity and therefore will have more skin irregularities or wrinkles. Usually, post-operative massage helps to smooth these areas.

Asymmetry: No two halves of the body are identical. Therefore, following liposuction, there may appear to be very slight differences between the contour and size of the two sides. Scoliosis or other spine derangements can magnify body asymmetry.

Muscle Spasm: It is very common to get temporary muscle spasm or cramps in the areas that were liposuctioned. This usually resolves quickly by itself or can be helped by gentle heat and massage.

Pain and Discomfort: You should expect to have pain or discomfort similar to a feeling of having worked out too hard. Some of this may feel like a stabbing pain in the liposuctioned areas, and in adjacent areas. This can usually be managed by pain medications, and it generally lasts for a few weeks. Rarely, and in people with Fibromyalgia, or other forms of chronic pain syndrome, there can be a worsening of the patient’s baseline pain.

Depression, emotional, or sexual changes: There have been reported incidents of post-liposuction depression similar to postpartum depression. While this is usually temporary, patients need to address it with their physician.

Seroma or fluid collection: After liposuction, there may be a pooling of serum, the straw colored liquid from your blood, in areas where tissue has been removed. While this can be a common problem with Ultrasound Assisted Liposuction (UAL), it rarely occurs with standard Tumescent Liposuction. Your surgeon can alleviate these by draining them with a small needle in an office procedure.

Liposuction Surgeon – Qualifications

While many states allow any licensed physician to perform cosmetic surgery, that does not mean all physicians are competent to do so. In some states, even dentists are lobbying to perform cosmetic procedures. Because liposuction is major surgery, you should place your life in the hands of the most qualified and skilled plastic surgeon. You should also choose a surgeon who will show you solid “Before and After” examples of his or her work, and whose artistic sense is in sync with the results that you are seeking.

Liposuction – Risks & Potential Complications
What Are the Major Risks and Potential Complications of Liposuction?

Like any non-cosmetic major surgery, liposuction has potential risks and complications. Therefore, you should consider it as seriously as you would any major surgery.

Liposuction Techniques

Once the area has been sufficiently plumped up, the surgeon removes these fat cells through the insertion of a cannula, a tiny wand like instrument that suctions and removes the loosened fat cells via a high-power suction machine. The fat then glides through transparent vacuum-like tubes as fat and fluid are suctioned from your body. Because of the fluid loss, you need to be monitored carefully by an experienced anesthesiologist who can balance your fluid intake and output throughout the procedure.

There is nothing arbitrary about this process. A skilled surgeon, like a sculptor, has to use his sense of sight and touch to assess the areas of fat buildup and to contour and sculpt these areas into an ideal form. It also requires a great deal of arm movement and exertion by the surgeon, as he or she both suctions and sculpts. The tumescent technique has a low complication rate in and of itself, yet is also used as preparation for other kinds of liposuction techniques.

Liposuction Facts & Myths

One of the greatest joys for me as a plastic surgeon is to see my patients become thrilled with their new size, look and increased self-esteem. They are then motivated to maintain a healthier lifestyle of good eating habits, and exercise. They are determined that, after the time, effort and cost of surgery, they would never go back to where they were!

What is Liposuction?

Liposuction is also known as “lipoplasty” or “suction-assisted lipectomy.” All of these refer to the removal of unwanted lumps, bulges, and areas of fat using a thin suction metal tube or a “cannula.” This instrument is inserted into subcutaneous body fat through small incisions. A strong vacuum is then applied through a hose attached to the cannula, which draws fat from under the skin.

Liposuction Information
The term “Liposuction” refers mostly to the practice of liposuction where the body parts are contoured and shaped into a slimmer profile. Because it involves sculpting and contouring, your plastic surgeon should be one who is blessed with a strong artistic sense. It is, after all, not the latest liposuction technique or machine that will give you the ultimate figure. Rather, it is the skills of the plastic surgeon who uses them!

Liposuction Candidates
The first group includes those who are large and wish to reduce their size, for many reasons, including being able to feel good in their clothing. These include women who gained much weight after pregnancy, or who take medications or hormones that cause weight gain. This also includes people who have gained much weight due to a bodily injury or disability that prevents them from exercising. And finally, there are many people who gain weight with aging.

The second group includes those who are generally fit, but who are frustrated with disproportionate fat buildup in specific areas, such as the abdomen, hips, thighs, buttocks, knees, upper thighs, cheeks, and neck. The reason for fat growth in these stubborn areas is genetic and therefore, cannot be reduced much – even through exercise or starvation.

The third group includes men who have gynecomastia – excessive breast growth. Although some of this breast growth is the result of the actual enlargement of breast glands, there is also extensive growth of the fatty tissue in the breasts. Breast growth in men is rather prevalent. In fact, one third of adolescent men grow breasts. One third of this group actually keeps their breasts into adulthood. This can pose much embarrassment, loss of self-confidence, and the inability to wear clothes comfortably.

Liposuction in New York
During your consultation, Dr. Shahine will review your treatment options for body contouring and Liposuction, including pros and cons, potential risks and complications, recovery course, pre and post operative instructions, and aesthetic outcomes. There are also many before-and-after pictures, high resolution images of Liposuction available in our photo gallery.

If you are considering liposuction in New York contact Dr. Shahine. The New york Beauty surgeon serves Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, Staten island.

Liposuction Candidates
Men and women who have diligently tried diet and exercise to reduce their size, and who have been frustrated time and again because they cannot achieve their ideal size and figure, are good candidates for liposuction. Often, these are people who have gained disproportionably large amounts of weight and fat due to pregnancy, or prescribed drugs such as hormone replacement therapies or cortisone.

Also, those who have stubborn areas of localized fat such as “saddlebags”,  “thunder thighs”,  “love handles” and “double chins” are good candidates. These are areas of the body that, for genetic reasons, are resistant to exercise and dieting. Patients complain that, rather than losing weight from these problem areas, they lose it in their face, in their breasts and in parts of their bodies that they are happy with. This, in turn, makes them feel as if they appear prematurely older.

As a general rule, the best candidates for liposuction are those who have maintained a stable weight for at least six months, whatever their size.