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  • Liposuction Recovery Requires Downtime and Garments
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Hey. It's Dr. Lowenstein in Santa Barbara, and I'd like to cover some information about recovery from liposuction. Very commonly asked question, very good question, liposuction creates a cavity. When we go and we take fat out from the region of the body between the underlying muscle tissue and the overlying skin, a cavity is left over, and the important aspect of recovery is that that cavity heals without space or fluid, so the big thing about recovery from liposuction is the importance of having what we call apposition or contact between the two layers on either side of that cavity, and what that means is that in most instances we need a compressive garment after liposuction to hold those two layers together.

Now, what we don't want to happen with those two layers is what we call sheer forces, where they move lateral to each other. Okay? So when you have the healing, you get bonds that form between the overlying skin and the underlying muscle, and when those bonds get broken, fluid collects, and we call that a seroma, which is one of the most common downside effects or complications of liposuction. So we do everything we can to prevent that, so in my practice, what I do is I use something called Topifoam, which is a foam that goes directly on the skin and over that goes a compressive garment, and that compressive garment, I want to be on a lot.

I like that to be on basically 24 hours a day for the first at least two, if not three, weeks, and after that we move to putting that on only at night, but during the first month or so after liposuction, I really want you to limit a lot of physical activity that involves twisting or motion in which you would imagine the overlying skin travels over the underlying muscle layer. So all of that tissue gets really...gets healed together really, really nicely. It helps prevent contour irregularities, helps prevent seromas, fluid collection, and just gets you the best outcome. So you've got to just think of it as a necessity for your post-operative time to be invested in your outcome.

We can do the best procedure in the world, and if patients are non-compliant after surgery, you're not going to get the best outcome, but if you're compliant after surgery, and as hard as it is, even if you're feeling really good, which is a very common thing after liposuction, you've got to take it easy in order to make sure that you get the best long term outcome. So hope that helps. That's how we do it here in Santa Barbara. Again, Dr. Lowenstein. Best wishes! Thanks, bye-bye.

Liposuction Recovery Requires Downtime and Garments

Dr. Adam Lowenstein explains what patients can expect when recovering from liposuction surgery.