Power Liposuction: A Report on Complications

BACKGROUND Liposuction is the most commonly performed cosmetic surgical procedure in the United States. Traditional liposuction (TL) performed under general anesthesia has been associated with reports of major systemic complications, including death. When TL is performed using only tumescent anesthesia, there have been no reported deaths and few significant systemic complications. Power liposuction (PL), a newer procedure in which a reciprocating cannula is used to evacuate fat, has reported benefits over TL. OBJECTIVE To determine the complication rate associated with PL and to compare it with TL (regardless of the type of anesthesia). METHODS In this study, 207 consecutive PL cases performed with tumescent anesthesia between August 2000 and May 2002 by a dermatologic surgeon (B.K.) and a plastic surgeon (M.B.) were reviewed retrospectively to determine the number of complications associated with the PL procedure. RESULTS No systemic complications were identified, and only three local complications (all seromas) were found. This represents a complication rate of 1.4%. CONCLUSION Our results demonstrate fewer complications when performing PL using tumescent anesthesia compared with TL using general anesthesia. When compared with TL using tumescent anesthesia, the overall complication rate did not differ significantly. We conclude that in addition to PL previously demonstrated benefits, the complication profile compares favorably with TL under local tumescent anesthesia. Therefore, PL may assume a more prominent role in the armamentarium of the surgeon performing liposuction.

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