New York, Jan. 2 -- In the two decades
since it was first introduced in the United
States, liposuction has become one of the most
common cosmetic surgery procedures. Major
advances came with something called tumescent
analgesia, and a few years ago with ultrasound
assisted liposuction. Now just in time to handle
your post-holiday weight gain, there's “power
liposuction.”
“FOR YEARS, I'VE watched what I've eaten,
exercised, had a personal trainer. There are
some areas that just never improve,” said Tracy
Materetsky, a power liposuction patient.
It’s the classic description of a perfect
candidate for liposuction. Materetsky is by no
means obese or even particularly overweight, but
she has the classic fat pockets that just won't
go away. As a nurse, she was always a little
leery of traditional liposuction until she heard
of something called power liposuction.
According to Dr. Michael Bruck of the Juva
Skin and Laser Center, “It makes the surgeon's
work easier and allows much greater precision.”
The key to power liposuction is a motorized
canula that makes the business end of the canula
vibrate back and forth, which provides a number
of advantages for the patient.
Dr. Bruck studied a number of patients on
which he did one side with power and the other
side with conventional liposuction.
Dr. Bruck said, “We found up to 40 percent
reduction in pain, decrease in swelling and
significant decrease with post-operative
bruising. There is something about the
power-assisted that makes it less painful for
patient. When we did the study, we asked
patients where they felt less pain and
discomfort, and invariably it was on
power-assisted side.”
This allows the surgeon to perform the
procedure while the patient is awake. Because
Materetsky was awake, Dr. Bruck can actually get
her to stand up to check the results in a real
life situation.
“I don’t feel a thing -- a little pressure, a
little sensation. But no pain,” Materetsky said.
The results achieve the improved body contour
of any well-done liposuction but generally with
less need for touch ups.
And as budding actress Joy Sudduth found when
she had power liposuction done recently, there
is a fairly easy recovery.
“There was some slight bruising. I wasn’t in
much pain. It felt like I worked out really,
really hard,” Sudduth said.
The advantage of power-liposuction over
ultrasound-assisted is that there's is no risk
of getting an internal skin burn that sometimes
happened with ultrasound.
Additionally, because the patient is awake
during power-lipo, there's no risk of anesthesia
complications.
The cost of the procedure is about the same
as conventional liposuction -- $3,500 for the
first body area and another $1,500 or so for
each additional
area.
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