Liposuction is a cosmetic technique in which excess fatty tissue is suctioned from beneath the skin. It was first developed in 1974 by Italian gynecologist Giorgio Fischer (b. 1934) who found that he could remove fat through tiny incisions with an electrical rotating scalpel connected to a cannula that was attached, in turn, to a suction device. The procedure was initially developed to remove excess fat to make abdominal surgery easier. A major drawback was that patients often suffered considerable blood loss.
Four years later, French plastic surgeon Yves-Gerard Illouz was the first to recognize the potential of liposuction as a cosmetic procedure. He used a blunt- tipped cannula, which resulted in fewer complications and a shorter recovery time. In the early 1980s the procedure was introduced to the United States, but the high failure rate damped enthusiasm.
In 1985 Dr. Jeffrey Klein, a Californian dermatologist, solved the problerri with the development of tumescent anesthesia, a technique that uses large volumes of the local anesthetic lidocaine, in combination with the vasoconstrictive drug epinephrine. The combination of drugs helped to reduce the risk of bleeding and reduced the requirement for a general anesthetic.
With today's prevailing obsession with the body perfect, liposuction has never been more popular. It is particularly suitable for people who are more or less of normal weight but who have isolated pockets of fat that cause their bodies to appear disproportionate. The areas most often treated include the abdomen, hips, thighs, and knees.
