Hello and thank you for your question.Tumescent and Vaser are 2 different things. Tumescent is an approach to doing liposuction surgery and to me the approach is either under tumescent anesthesia or general anesthesia. VASER is a tool to help optimize results, similar to Smart Lipo laser. In my practice, I currently use both in a particular fashion. My approach to lipedema surgery is a version of the tumescent approach, using the WAL (Water-assisted liposuction), but I find that the WAL simply isn’t enough to get the best result in every patient, especially if they are fibrotic. I now use VASER as a second step for emulsification, prior to my contouring and sculpting of the area as a final step. Many times, I employ a fourth step, using the Smart Lipo Laser in very fibrotic areas and patients with dercum’s disease. In terms of invasiveness, I feel that the approach of doing the patient under a version of tumescent anesthesia is a safer approach than general anesthesia. I also find it is a more effective approach to better position the patient throughout the entire surgery. VASER is another tool that can add to the results if used properly by the surgeon.
