Dr. Verebelyi

I agree with Dr. Shafer that your compression garment and arnica are two of your best tools to help decrease the swelling and pain. 1000mg of Tylenol every 6-8 hours for the first couple weeks will also help. Not only do I provide the SmartLipo MPX procedure but I have also had it done and can tell you from experience that even at a month out there is still occasional discomfort which is totally normal. Other things that you may notice are itching and a rare poke or zing over the treatment area. The itching can be decreased by taking Benadryl, Claritin or Zyrtec. The rare poke or zing is simply a sign of the superficial nerves repairing themselves. It takes about 3 months for the majority of the swelling to truly go away and skin can remodel for over a year after the procedure. Massage starting about two weeks after the procedure will help the swelling decrease as much as 50% faster and may give you a slightly smoother overall result. I high recommend using someone who is trained in post surgical therapy (you provider should be able to guide you to an appropriate person). Good Luck.  

In the absence of fever and other symptoms, it is most likely post-op swelling.   This could also be a seroma which is a sterile fluid filled cavity that would need to be drained.  Seromas tend to show up when we do more superficial treatments.  Although they can delay healing they normally do not cause and permanent problems unless they are not drained and become encapsulated.  Your provider will be able to tell a seroma apart from swelling if a fluid wave is created when you tap on the area. If your provider determines that it is just swelling consider starting massage over the area twice a week for the next four weeks.  Go to massage therapist that is well versed in post surgical massage.  Expect that the swelling and lumpiness that is common after this procedure can take a good 3-4 months to truly resolve and the body will still be healing the area for up to a year after the procedure.  Good luck

  The MPX is a substantial leap forward in laser assisted liposuction.  The two main differences between the older SmartLipo and the MPX are power and laser wavelength.  The MPX goes up to 30 Watts (the max power of the older SmartLipo machines was 12 Watts) which allows it to break up fat much quicker than the older model.  This enables your physician to take away more total fat in the same amount of time. The older SmartLipo procedures would take excessively long to achieve the same results as a traditional lipo procedure. The other major difference is that the older version only has a 1064nm wavelength laser.  This wavelength is good at taking down fat and coagulating blood vessels but again it takes a lot of time to get the same amount of fat removal as you would with traditional liposuction.  The newer MPX has both a 1064nm and a 1320nm laser.  The addition of the 1320nm laser makes the laser much more efficient in breaking down the membrane of the fat cell. The 1320 wavelength has very high affinity for both fat and water which is exactly what makes up the membranes around fat cells. Thus the 1320nm laser is extremely efficient at destroying fat cells.  The MPX can achieve the same results as traditional lipo in about the same amount of time with less tissue trauma and in many offices at a little lower cost. While I agree with doctor Rand that there is poor data that SmartLipo causes any more tissue contraction than traditional liposuction (especially if your provider does a subdermal release) it does tend to cause less tissue trauma and thus heals faster.  The MPX is proabably your best bet.  But all in all, the most important thing is that your provider knows how to use his equipment well and that you understand the risk and benefits of the procedure that they are going to provide for you.  

Aging, environmental exposure and muscles that fold the skin around the eyes hundreds of times a day provide a triple threat to the tissue around the eyes.  The results are wrinkles, textural changes, laxity and discoloration.  In order to get the best results in this area you need to treat both the skin and the underlying muscle.  I start my patients with Botox. This quick, effective and safe procedure treats the muscle under the skin and keeps it from folding the overlying skin.   This prevents further damage, gives an immediate decrease in the lines and provides a slight raise in the lateral height of the eyebrow all without making the face look altered or frozen. Next I turn to resurfacing in order to address the wrinkles, pigmentation, texture and laxity of the skin around the eyes.  We have used Titan, Laser Genesis, IPL, chemical peels, Fraxel and many other modalities all with modest results.  The combination of the Active FX with Deep FX (i.e. Total FX) is the only procedure outside of full CO2 resurfacing that I have seen consistently excellent results for fine, moderate and even deep lines.  Downtime should range from about 5 day to 2 weeks depending on how aggressively your provider performs the treatment.

Injections of sterile water with deep massage often will break these little collagen lumps up over a month or two. Also, over several months to a couple of year they will improve without any additional treatment. Doing a small incision and removing the lump is also an option if you do not want to wait and scaring is normally minimal.