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Liposuction -Historically Speaking

Liposuction is now a household name and is a common procedure, but it was not always so. Presently liposuction is sought after by many to help with the process of looking thinner, trimmer, and attractively contoured. It has become the ideal solution to those stubborn bits of fats that will not leave you however hard you diet and exercise.

Back in the 1920s, over a hundred years ago, Dr. Charles Dujarier pioneered the concept of fat removal to effect body contouring. He performed the precursor surgery in 1926 when he removed fat from the knee of a model/dancer.

Unfortunately, the doctor removed too much fat and made his sutures too tight. The model developed gangrene and lost her leg to amputation. It took decades to refine the procedure, and over time the technique improved.

Fast forward

Fast forward to the 1960s, and European surgeons were cutting away unwanted fat from patients, resulting in too much bleeding and the scarring of patients. The surgeons found the technique too risky and opted instead to perform on the parts of the body that had fewer blood vessels.

Changes in the 1970s

The 1970s dawned with new ideas and techniques. Their original method of curettage was inconsistent, and by 1974 a father and son team of Arpad and Giorgio Fischer developed the cannula tool. The cannula is a tube used by surgeons to bypass blood vessels as it suctions the unwanted fat. The procedure by the Fishchers was only performed on thighs initially. They paved the way for modern liposuction. , however.

Plastic Surgery Era

In that same eventful decade of the 1970s, plastic surgeons Dr. Yves Gerard Illouz and Dr. Pierre Fournier brought to life the techniques of the Fischer duo and refined them.

They improved the cannula designs and developed the cris-cross method of removing fat, thus improving the outcome of the procedure. These French doctors also developed the wet technique in liposuction. This is injecting saline –saltwater- -into the area to be suctioned. It was their innovation also to compress the affected area after surgery to give support.

In 1998 Power-Assisted Liposuction (PAL) was approved. It involves the cannula that pulses during the surgery and breaks up the fat. This causes precise removal of fat by rapid vibration, sending the fat through the cannula easily.

So, look carefully for the cannula during your procedure and see what else you can identify.