Laser Lipo

Many people desire to lose weight or shift fat. It is fair to say that even conventional liposuction is not a great way to lose weight. Diet and exercise are still the mainstay of treatment for effective results. Having said that there are a significant number of people who are of a more reasonable weight but who are very unhappy with the distribution of fat on their body. These people are more concerned with shape than weight. In the past this has required surgical liposuction involving a general anaesthetic a short stay in hospital, considerable bruising and swelling and the wearing of very uncomfortable restrictive clothing for 4 to 6 weeks following the procedure. There is a lot of pain to endure and the final results can take 6 to 12 months to develop fully. This has lead to many people looking into a way of reducing the severity of the treatment, reducing the risks and the ‘down time’.

One new and exciting development in this area has been Laser Lipo. Laser Lipo involves the use of a fine one millimeter cannula with an ultra-fine fibreoptic laser. This laser does not attempt to melt the fat as this would require very large amounts of energy. Instead it seeks only to disrupt the fat cells and break them down. This turns intra-cellular fat into extracellular fat. The body then gets rid of the extra-cellular fat over a period of 6 to 8 weeks. It is important to note that no attempt is made to remove this fat it is simply left in situ and the body naturally degrades it over a period of time.

This makes Laser Lipo inherently less traumatic and safer. It also means that Laser Lipo does not require a general anaesthetic or an operating theatre. All of this significantly reduces the cost of the procedure and improves the ‘down time’ The bruising and swelling is much less and resolves within a week to ten days. The compression garments are only needed for one week, and the final result is visible in as little as twelve to sixteen weeks.

Laser Lipo is not a replacement for liposuction. There is a limit as to how much can be done at any one time and if you need to remove reasonably large amounts of fat in one go then liposuction is still the preferred option. Laser Lipo can be used in the right patients to provide very pleasing results with significantly less ‘down time’ and discomfort.