In the modern world, liposuction is one of the most popular plastic surgery.
Earlier with liposuction it was possible to remove not more than 0.52 gallon of fat, today liposuction can change the contours of the whole body, this is facilitated by the emergence of new techniques for liposuction and modern equipment.
This article will discuss one of the relatively new types of liposuction – Power Assisted Liposuction.
Power Assisted Liposuction is one of the new methods to combat local fat deposits, it was developed in 1997.
This method of liposuction has gained immense popularity thanks to pneumatic cannulas.
Cannulas of this type provide better results than conventional cannulas, this is achieved by short reciprocating movements. As the results of the study showed, Power Assisted Liposuction is much safer, less painful, takes less time, allows to remove a large amount of fat in one session. The recovery period after power assisted liposuction is shorter and more comfortable than tumescent liposuction.
After this type of liposuction, complications in the form of hematomas and swelling occur much less frequently, but even in this case they quickly disappear.
How is the procedure Power assisted liposuction performed?
The pneumatic cannula is mounted on a special handle and makes forward movements backwards. The handle is connected with a cable to a mechanical or pneumatic device, which produces up to 6,000 translational movements per minute, thus facilitating the movement of the cannula.
Power assisted liposuction is comparable in technology to the work of a surgeon in the performance of standard or tumescent liposuction. Destroyed fat cells are removed by vacuum suction (as well as with standard liposuction).
Pros of Power assisted liposuction before other types of liposuction:
- the procedure is absolutely safe,
- Power assisted liposuction has a shorter recovery period,
- this procedure is effective for removing large amounts of adipose tissue,
- especially effective in case of repeated liposuction,
- Power assisted liposuction is less time consuming for the surgeon than for standard or tumescent liposuction,
- During this procedure, supersonic waves are not formed, cavitation does not occur, high temperature does not damage surrounding tissues and blood vessels.
Reviews about liposuction are mostly positive. The only inconvenience that patients note is the noise produced by the equipment during the procedure.
We also offer a brief overview of the main advantages and disadvantages of the most popular types of liposuction.
So, let’s begin our review with Power assisted liposuction. Since the invention of this procedure, there were several of its varieties. First, dry liposuction was used, then wet, and to date all modern surgeons use tumescent liposuction, which allows to achieve a good cosmetic result with a small number of complications.
Despite the fact that tumescent liposuction is a fairly safe procedure with a low level of complications, the search for a safer method has continued. As a result, plastic surgeons were offered power assisted liposuction. Its feature is that the vacuum cannula produces short rotational movements.
Power Assisted Liposuction requires less effort from the surgeon, more fat tissue can be removed, complications occur about the same percentage of cases as with tumescent liposuction.
With laser liposuction, removal of adipose tissue is carried out using a special cannula in which a laser is embedded. The drawbacks of the method include the fact that it is applicable to small amounts of fat being removed, in addition, it is more difficult to control the amount of fat that is removed, and in cases where the removed fatty tissue is due to the skin more intense exposure can lead to the formation of retracted scars.
Despite the fact that the developers declare the selective effect of the laser on adipose tissue, it is still possible to exclude the presence of effects on the nerves and blood vessels.
Radiofrequency liposuction is performed using a cannula consisting of the inner and outer parts that act on the adipose tissue with radiofrequency energy. As a result of this effect, fat tissue warms up, turns into an emulsion and is eliminated from the body. The disadvantages of the method include the risk of vascular and nerve damage.
Water-jet liposuction is a relatively new method in which water jets are applied to adipose tissue under certain pressure. In fact, fat cells are washed out of the body, while maintaining viability. The method is non-traumatic, it is used by few plastic surgeons, and at present there is not a lot of experience in its use.
And, finally, the most popular method of liposuction, which is offered by the vast majority of clinics, is ultrasonic liposuction. An unconditional advantage of the method is that it is performed without damaging the skin, that is, it is absolutely non-traumatic.
The wide spread of ultrasonic liposuction revealed its shortcomings, the presence of which was not expected. The disadvantages of ultrasonic liposuction include local burns, a fairly frequent formation of seroma, and the possibility of ultrasound exposure to internal organs. All this led to a decrease in interest in ultrasonic liposuction.
Undoubtedly, the creation of a safe non-invasive liposuction method is quite an attractive task, but the availability of new methods that do not have visible drawbacks is often due to the small experience of their use.
At the same time, to obtain an excellent result it is necessary that the surgeon perfectly master the method that he uses.
The risk of complications after power assisted liposuction is rather low and is 2-3%, all complications have long been known and easily eliminated. Despite the relative safety of the new methods of liposuction, it is necessary to take into account the small experience of their use and the possibility of occurrence of unknown complications to date.