Liposuction has been going on for a very long time. In its standard form it is truly very basic, involving large cannulae and high pressure suction to suck out as much fat as possible from the intended area. This has lead to a relatively high incidence of significant side effects in terms of bruising and swelling and possible haematoma formation and nerve damage. The high pressure suction is entirely non selective causing trauma to any tissues it comes into contact with. There has been an ongoing long term search for a better solution.Over the years many things have been tried with varying degrees of success, power suction assistance, ultrasound assistance but the initial ultrasound was particularly crude.

A few years ago Smart Lipo was introduced as Liposuction without the suction. The concept was that a fine fibre optic laser was used to breakup and emulsify the fat which was then left in situ and gradually reabsorbed by the body over the next 6 to 12 weeks. This procedure was safe, simple and gentle enough to be performed under a local anaesthetic and the recovery times were comparatively short. It was also significantly cheaper than formal liposuction under a general anaesthetic.

It became very popular for obvious reasons and unfortunately for some it was probably oversold. By that I mean that because of the nature of the treatment, because the emulsified fat was left in situ, there was a significant limitation to the amount of shape change that could be produced. That is not to say that it was ineffective just that it wasn’t as effective as most patients wanted.

A further refinement of this procedure was variously known as advanced laser lipo or smart lipo mpx. This basically finished off the laser procedure with a small amount of aspiration to remove some of the liquified fat. Thus liposuction without the suction becomes fundamentally liposuction! OK on a smaller scale and with less side effects but still fundamentally liposuction.

At about the same time a small company in Utah called Sound Surgical Technologies was refining Ultrasound Assisted Liposuction. They developed fine probes with engineered grooves to control and limit the effects of the ultrasound to just the fat cells. This produced the VASER device. Vibration Amplification of Sound Energy at Resonance that’s what VASER stands for and it creates a highly selective way of breaking down fat cells whilst preserving pretty much everything else. This is why they coined the phrase VASER Liposelection or VASER Lipo to differentiate it from cruder methods of Liposuction.

To the patient the treatments are very similar. They cost the same. They take roughly the same time and the recovery time is similar. VASER is a little ‘wetter’ as more tumescent anaesthetic is used to reduce bleeding and provide a good contact for the ultrasound probes. From the practitioners point of view it is pretty much identical other than instead of a Laser an Ultrasound machine is used.

So what are the main differences? Well having done two years of Smart Lipo I switched some eight months ago to VASER and the reasons for me are obvious. The process is so selective and gentle that there is very much less swelling and bruising. So much so that we often take photos immediately after the procedure which show an instant immediate improvement. No other liposuction treatments even bother to show immediately after pictures as they usually have so much swelling that they look worse immediately post op.

Secondly again because of the gentle nature of the process the recovery period is much shorter. We do a review at 3 weeks. Yes 3 weeks. That is because by then their is often 80-85% of the improvement already present. We next review at 3 months for the final view. Note again with traditional liposuction the first review is at 3 months as it takes that long for the swelling to go down enough. Even then they say up to six months to achieve the final result.

Thirdly and most importantly. In direct comparison and personal experience we just get a lot more fat out with VASER than with Smart Lipo. Better results quicker. Its a bit of a no brainer really.

I sometimes offer my patients either treatment. I say “It  costs the same, it feels the same but the VASER gets the better results. Which do you want me to do?”

If you would like to talk personally to me about this or any of the other procedures we do then call the girls on 01625 598 000 and book your FREE consultation now!

© Dr Paul Cronin 2009                   http://www.eternalyouth.co.uk

Eternal Youth is proud to offer VASER Liposelection treatments to the people of Alderley Edge, Wilmslow, Hale, Stockport, Manchester, Liverpool, Cheshire, the North West and the whole of the UK.

Tags: Abdomen, Fat, Fat reduction, Laser, Lipo, Liposuction, Thighs, VASER

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 10:51 am and is filed under Sound Therapy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.