The risk of death, which in 1998 was 1 in 5,000, dropped to 1 in 47,415 from 1998 to 2000, according to results of more than 94,000 procedures reviewed in the March/April 2001 issue of Aesthetic Surgery Journal. Surgeons' reports suggest complications have dropped as well; in the survey, the most common minor side effect was postoperative nausea or vomiting, while the most frequent major complication was skin peeling around the treated area.
Surgeons no longer routinely combine lipoplasty with other major surgery, says Dr. Charles Hughes III, a plastic surgeon in Indianapolis and the author of the journal article.
Smaller surgical tools with ultrasound attachments that break down the fat before it is suctioned away have also made the procedure safer.
Recently, some doctors have suggested that lipoplasty can be a valid treatment for the "medically overweight." In studies presented at meetings and published late last year, some plastic surgeons said "large-volume lipoplasty"— the "vacuuming out" of roughly 10 pounds of fat — could be done safely and effectively. One group reported that the operation could produce significant decreases in systolic blood pressure, fasting insulin levels and total body weight that could possibly "improve overweight women's cardiovascular risk profile."
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