subject: When Is Liposuction Medically Advisable? [print this page] Liposuction (also called lipoplasty and suction lipectomy) is a large and ever-growing field. Hundreds of thousands of Americans undergo this procedure every year. For twelve out of the last thirteen years, lipoplasty has topped the charts as the number one most popular cosmetic surgery in America.
Some people wonder, though, whether a lipectomy can ever be more than an elective surgery. Some wonder whether it can occasionally be medically necessary or advisable.
Typically, the answer is no, although there can be exceptions. In general, a lipoplasty is performed for cosmetic reasons. The surgery removes fat from the body through the assistance of suction. During the surgery, a doctor breaks up and suctions out excess fat from one or a few target areas of the body.
Some people, upon being told that liposuction can help to remove fat, get the idea that it can function as a weight loss system. Although it would be nice if this were true, it isn't. A lipoplasty cannot typically remove enough fat to do significant good in improving a person's overall health. It similarly cannot reproduce the healthy cardiovascular and other effects of regular exercise, and it cannot duplicate the nutritional benefits of a healthy, balanced diet.
People whose health is suffering because of obesity typically have large stores of fat throughout their entire body, which is another reason why lipoplasty cannot typically help the health of obese people. The surgery works best when it is performed on one or a few target areas, because each additional area added increases the trauma of the surgery.
Obesity frequently causes a condition called metabolic syndrome or syndrome x. This condition is a combination of medical disorders that has a number of different effects. These effects include, among other things, an increased risk of diabetes and cardiovascular difficulties. Some scientists argue that in very specific cases, the surgical removal of fat can help to combat this syndrome. However, these scientists seem to be in the minority. Most scientists seem to agree that lipoplasty cannot remove enough fat from the right places to significantly affect this disease.
One of the few times when liposuction is medically advisable is in the case of women who have excessively large breasts. Some women with large and heavy breasts find that they experience spine, neck and shoulder pain because of the constant weight of their breasts. The size of their breasts can also interfere with mammograms. A lipectomy can often remove enough weight to help reduce the pain and increase mammogram accuracy. Sometimes, insurance companies are even willing to pay for lipoplasty breast reductions.
