What is recovery like after Smart Lipo or Cool Lipo?

After Cool Lipo, some patients drive themselves home. This is the case if they did not want or take anything for being nervous. Some patients prefer to be driven home after their procedure. The tissue can be somewhat swollen from leftover tumescent anesthetic fluid, and this subsides over some days to a week or so.

There may be no bruising at all, or there may be some bruising (patients tend to know if they bruise easily). For many areas done with Cool Lipo™, there is no down time, and you are able to function and work. Some patients have multiple areas or larger areas done, and they are more comfortable if they rest for a day or two, and then resume activity as tolerated. Each physician will customize the activity prescription.

In general, there is very little down time with Cool Lipo - at most a couple of days, and often, none at all. Patients do wear compression garments but for shorter amounts of time than with conventional liposuction. The very small entry points in the skin heal uneventfully and usually are unapparent. They may heal a bit darker than the surrounding skin, depending on how the individual heals. The entry points are often put mainly in skin folds and unapparent places. If an unacceptable dark appearance occurs after healing, these may be faded out using intense pulsed light (IPL) in most
patients.

Aftercare requires wearing the compression garments for a
short period of time, changing bandages over the insertion sites for a day or two, keeping antibiotic ointment over the sites, taking prophylactic oral antibiotics, following activity prescription if any, and in general, avoiding non-steroidal anti-inflammatory meds such as Motrin, aspirin, Aleve, Naprosyn, and ibuprofen. These over-the-counter medicines halt the inflammatory response that is so vital to collagen production after a treatment, such as Cool Lipo, Thermage, etc.