Which Liposuction Technique Works Best with Abdominoplasty?

Sometimes when patients are asking me if they’ll need a tummy tuck or liposuction, the best answer is really “both.” For moms and post-weight-loss patients particularly, a tummy tuck alone just won’t take care of the extra fat that usually collects near problem areas like the hips, lower belly, and thighs. Even for many men, it usually doesn’t make sense to deal with the muscle and skin, but ignore the fat altogether.

With so many different liposuction options available today, how do you know which to go with? In general, I prefer Power-Assisted Liposuction (PAL) and sometimes I will also use Ultrasonic or Smartlipo™ Laser-Assisted Liposuction. Here’s why:

• PAL does a better job of dealing with larger fatty deposits. Abdominal fat tends to collect as a single large deposit instead of multiple smaller ones, and the gentle vibrations of PAL make it much easier for me to remove that large patch of fat without harming the muscle and the skin that I’ll need to take care of during the abdominoplasty.
• PAL with UAL or Smartlipo gives better definition. For some patients this isn’t an issue, since an abdominoplasty in Beverly Hills by itself will do a pretty good job of emphasizing whatever muscle definition you already have. But very often I’ll have patients who want abdominal etching or microliposuction to help delineate their muscle tone a little better, and Smartlipo lends itself well to the very-small-scale fat removal that this kind of procedure involves.

Tags: abdominoplasty beverly hills

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 8:47 pm and is filed under Abdominoplasty,Liposuction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.