Liposuction on saddlebags/outer thighs, are death ratios something to worry about? (Photo)

Hello Reserved578865. Thank you for your question regarding liposuction safety.

Thank you for your history and your pictures. If you have isolated areas of fat, liposuction is an effective surgical procedure to remove fat permanently from the affected area. Like any surgery, liposuction has its associated risks. It is important to understand that liposuction is a real surgery and should not be taken lightly. While there have been reported deaths associated with liposuction, it is one of the most commonly performed surgical procedures in the US, and deaths are statistically exceedingly rare.

In your case, given that you are healthy and only have small pockets of fat, you would be at an extremely low risk of having complications or death after liposuction surgery. Before any surgical procedure is scheduled, preoperative labs, EKG, and chest x-ray are obtained to assess risk factors and ensure your safety.

Overall, I think you would be safe to undergo liposuction of your saddlebags. However, it is always important to consult with a board-certified plastic surgeon who can provide you with detailed information and address any concerns you may have.

Good luck. I hope I’ve answered your question regarding liposuction safety.

Sincerely,

J. Timothy Katzen, MD, FASMBS, FICS

Hi, thank you for sharing your question. Liposuction in this area is extremely safe and a complication such as death from saddle bag liposuction would be extremely rare, if at all.

Thank you for your question and photo. First of all, liposuction of the saddlebags is a safe area to work on. There are no major blood vessels in the area which can lead to blood vessel laceration and fat embolus or death. Of course if you choose the wrong surgeon or non-surgeon doing the procedure, untoward effects can happen with asymmetry, irregularities and poor results.
Saddlebags are better visualized from the back view. What I see in this front view is strong muscular thighs, minimal saddlebags, hip dips and excess fat rolls above the groin crease. As a Total Definer plastic surgeon, you would get the best results from liposuction of the fat rolls, fat grafting the hip dips to give a smooth feminine curve instead of the "violin" deformity that you have. The saddlebags need to be done judiciously from the back to keep a feminine curve. If it is overdone, it will masculinize this area for you. See a board certified plastic surgeon with extensive experience in body sculpting for an in person consultation/evaluation. Good luck.

It is very likely that liposuction of both lateral (saddle bags) and medial, inner thighs would be best option for you. This procedure can be done in twilight anesthesia which will further decrease risks of blood and fat cloths. Incident of deadly outcome is very low in your case. Hope this helps.

Hello; you seem to have fat and loose skin on your legs. If, accompaniments with lubrication; if you have loose skin; in addition to Vaserlipo; I recommend for you to get Renuvion J Plasma or Bodytite treatments. The amount of fat to be removed from you; the ratio to your body mass; is pretty low. Mortality rate; associated with this type of procedure; is quite low. However, no implementation under no circumstances; mortality rate or complication rate; is not zero.

Liposuction of the saddlebags/legs would be a great choice for you. Safety is always the number one priority in surgery. The first step in your safety starts with you! Begin by researching experienced board certified plastic surgeons near you. Research credentials. Look at before/after photos. Then schedule consultations with those who meet your criteria. Your surgeon should evaluate your medical history and examine you to determine if you are a good candidate for the procedure. This will include reviewing your medications and if you are a smoker, etc. Ensure that your surgery will be in performed in an accredited facility. And remember to ask lots of questions. After surgery closely follow your post operative instructions and keep your surgeon aware of any concerns. These steps will help keep your risk low while optimizing your results.

Liposuction is one of the safest cosmetic procedures done. I do recommend going to a board-certified plastic surgeon who does lot of procedures and not someone who is not a surgeon but just took a weekend course. You can also do awake liposuction, especially for the outer thighs, and even have less risk.

I have done a tremendous amount of liposuction over my 32 years in practice. I have done liposuction on my wife about 5 times, in different areas, on my sister twice. Liposuction was considered one of the safest plastic surgery procedures until some of the newer techniques came along that allowed us to remove far larger amounts of fat. Studies have shown the death rates went up significantly with the larger amounts of fat removed. Therefore, I limit how much fat I remove at any one time. I think liposuction is incredibly safe, as long as the surgeon has a lot of experience and knows the safe limits. It is hard to tell how your flanks and saddle-bags look in this photo. But I seriously doubt that you have enough fat to be a safety concern. Sure, liposuction has its risks, as does all surgery. But I consider liposuction, in the right hands, to be one of the safest procedures we do!

Dear Reserved,
Congratulations on building an amazing body! Although there will always be risks to surgery, no matter how minor, liposuction of the saddlebags carries an extremely low risk of death. It can sometimes be performed under local anesthesia as well, with an even lower risk. Good luck!

All procedures have risk.
Those are highly risk covers should probably not have cosmetic surgery.
That said Liposuction is One of the safest elective surgical procedures, especially areas far away from major Oregon structures like the heart, abdomen or other structures that incompetent providers have managed to injure.
And the hands of a highly experienced provider. Your chance of complication should be the most likely complication is results that are undesirable, and the rate of having patient satisfaction is substantially higher.
Consistent quality Liposuction results is much more difficult than most people realize.
The number of plastic surgeons who mastered this procedure is pretty low.
All plastic surgeons, or at least the great majority claim to be competent or even good at liposuction, but in reality most plastic surgeons are not very good at this procedure.
A single picture is insufficient to make a quality assessment.
When I do body contouring, I’m usually looking for a smooth continuous S curve starting at the knee and finishing the armpit.
This S-curve is the quintessential female body form and referred to as hourglass or Coke bottle
In your case, the S curb is not smooth and continuous for a number of reasons.
You don’t have all that much subcutaneous fat.
Some of the shape is due to bone structure. Some of it is subcutaneous fat, and some is muscle mass from high weight lifting.
To make a quality assessment if we need quality information.
Ideally, this means in person consultations.
The two variables that determine plastic surgery outcomes are usually patient candidacy and provider selection.
Focusing your effort on those two single variables is the most helpful advice I can give you.
Understanding your candidacy is key because it recognizes what a procedure can or cannot accomplish.
The ability to make accurate assessments is not easy or straightforward just like doing the procedure is not.
Being able to predict outcomes beforehand is probably just as difficult as doing Liposuction well.
A patient who is an excellent candidate for Liposuction has the potential of having an excellent outcome.
They can also be left disfigured.
A person who is not a good candidate for Liposuction does not have the potential to have a high-quality outcome regardless of who does the procedure.
Most patients are not either a candidate or not a candidate. The great majority of people fall somewhere in the spectrum between not being a candidate and being a perfect candidate.
Understanding where you lie on the candid spectrum and understanding what the procedure can and cannot accomplish is key and keeping high patient satisfaction, even if you find the right provider.
If you don’t understand your candidacy, then patient can be disappointed with a perfect surgical outcome.
in the hands of the right provider, you’ll get quality assessment and a good provider should be able to communicate what the procedure can and cannot accomplish.
To find the right provider, I suggest patients first make a list of board-certified plastic surgeons in their community. They seem to have extensive Liposuction experience.
Next schedule in person consultations with each of those providers.
I recommend patients start by first getting a complete set of body pictures the same way plastic surgeons take before and after pictures.
Your picture is good. You just need to add a few more angles.
Use pictures of yourself as reference during the consultation, especially when reviewing before and after pictures.
Don’t rely on your memory or looking in the mirror during this part of the consult.
During each consultation, ask each provider to open up their portfolio and show you their entire collection of before and after pictures who had similar body characteristics to your own.
They may not be able to find people who look exactly like you, but it should be the same general characteristics of the same treated areas.
Look for patients who have similar age, similar thickness of subcutaneous, fat, similar levels of skin, laxity, etc., etc. Shown a handful of pre-selected representing the best. Results of a providers career may be insufficient to get a clear understanding of what average results look like in the hands of each provider.
an experience provider should have access 100s or preferably thousands of before and after pictures to choose from.Take care notes during each consultation, especially regarding the quality and quantity of outer thigh, liposuction results.
In my opinion, this procedure needs to be done with patient laying on their side during surgery.
Doing outer thigh, liposuction with people laying on their back is compromising is often the case when general anesthesia is used.
Liposuction can be done with local anesthesia, local anesthesia with sedation or local anesthesia with general anesthesia.
Local anesthesia is always injected into the tissues before liposuction.
As I mentioned earlier mastering, Liposuction is very difficult and the number of people who are truly exceptional at Liposuction is pretty limited.
This means that to find the right provider generally requires quite a few consultations.
I don’t think people can find the right provider by scouring the Internet.
There is no correct number of consultations needed to find the right provider.
Sometimes it’s simply a matter of luck.
Considering how much variation there is in the skill among providers I suggest patients have at least four or five consultations before considering selecting a provider.
Liposuction results are permanent and irreversible.
If done poorly, Liposuction could leave people disfigured.
It’s very difficult to correct poorly down Liposuction so keep all these things in mind
From looking at your picture, reducing some of the fat just above your hip dip and reducing your overall thigh, size should give a very nice improvement.
Your body is bottom heavy and some of this may be related to your exercise regimen.
I’m guessing you like to do squats.
Maybe consider cycling as an alternative to heavyweights.
With those guns, you could be a cycling sprint champion(sorry, different topic)
In a nutshell, I think you’re a good candidate for Liposuction. Not all the problems are related to subcutaneous fat but well done Liposuction should give you a very nice improvement.
You could potentially also include some of fat transfer for icing on the cake type outcomes.
The single most important variable is always provider selection.
Be more elective than you ever thought necessary in regard.
When in doubt . Slow down and schedule more consultations.
Best,
Mats Hagstrom MD