Water-Assisted Liposuction for Body Contouring and Lipoharvesting

The recently in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal published study by Gordon H. Sasaki, MD FACS, from Pasadena, California:

Water-jet assisted liposuction (WAL) and subsequent fat transfer (J-AFT) has shown to be safe, effective and very gentle to patient and extracted fat alike. The harvested fat is of excellent quality directly after the extraction and does not require processing. No major complications were observed in this study.
Here some key study findings:

• 41 consecutive patients treated with body-jet® liposuction in office setting under local anesthesia
• Subgroups: 19 patients small and 22 patients moderate volume liposuction
• 23 patients received autologous fat transfer
• No processing of fat (washing or centrifuging) prior to transfer

Subjective data:

• General satisfaction with results at 6 months follow-up
• Pain assessment; very low average values (visual analog scale 0-10): intraoperative 1-2; postoperative day two, three 1-3

Lab data:

• Blood loss negligible (lipocrit <1%)
• Extracted fat cells 90% alive after one hour, 10% after 6-8 hours (trypan blue vital dye)
• Peak lidocaine plasma levels within 6-14 hours significantly below safe limit

Complications / adverse events:

• No revisions required
• No signs of lidocaine side effects or toxicity, or volume shift
• No local complications like infection, seroma formation, hematoma, blistering, dischromia, permanent nerve injury, or thrombosis
• About 3% (1 pat) developed nodularity within six weeks postop. Successfully treated with external ultrasound.
• Fat transfer: No adverse signs like papules, nodules or liquefied fat collections

Further reading on autologous fat transer (Weitere Info zum Thema Eigenfett):

1. swissestetix blog entries on autologous fat transfer ( Blog Beiträge zum Thema Eigenfett)
2. swissestetix special internet site on autologous fat transfer (Internetseite zum Thema Eigenfett)
3. swissestetix YouTube movies on autologous fat transfer (YouTube Beiträge zum Thema Eigenfett)

Water-Assisted Liposuction for Body Contouring and Lipoharvestin