How Much Liposuction Can Be Done at Once? Can I Have Multiple Body Areas Treated At Once?

Outpatient Liposuction - No more than 5 liters = guidelines for most states regardless of whether it is laser lipo, ultrasonic lipo or standard liposuction

Liposuction Limits - depends on State and Safety

5000 cc's (5 liters) is the guideline limit for outpatient liposuction for many states including California. For smaller patients like yourself with more areas for liposuction removing less fat may be safer. This would probably apply to you as you only weigh 115 pounds. Make sure you have a consultation with a board certified plastic surgeon

From your description, you are an ideal candidate for lipo-sculpting of your problem areas.  Safety dictates that not more than 5 liters of liposuction can be done as an outpatient.  You wouldn't be closed to needing that much removed.  It is also not a problem treating multiples sites on the body at once, (although it can be difficult for anesthesia to keep their monitors out of the way).  As it sounds like you would need only local areas treated, you could possibly be done under only local anesthesia, saving you the cost of general anesthesia.  Check with a board certified plastic surgeon for all the specifics about your individual case.

It sounds like you are a good candidate for liposuction as you are not overweight and are doing the procedure to remove small areas of fat collection. The total amount of fat removed and time spent on the operating room table supercedes the number of body areas that undergo liposuction. Therefore you should be fine doing what you want in the hands of a qualified surgeon in a certified operating room.

My response to your question/post does not represent formal medical advice or constitute a doctor patient relationship. You need to consult with i.e. personally see a board certified plastic surgeon in order to receive a formal evaluation and develop a doctor patient relationship.

At 5'3" and 115 lb. you are fine to have all those areas done at the same time...Routinely we say that up to 5 liters (which you wont get anywhere close!) can be done safely as an outpatient and anything more than that, the patient should spend the night and be monitored. Again, you will do fine, I'm sure....

Liposuction removes unwanted fat with the use of cannulas.  Liposuction is not a weight loss method. It is best when used for fit people with "problem" areas.  It is not uncommon to have multiple areas liposuctioned at the same time. This has the advantage of combining recovery and is also more cost effective for you.  The key to multiple area liposuction is the amount of fat that is removed. It is important to keep the amount removed to less than 5 liters. This is still very a very significant amount of fat (about 12 pounds!) so it is possible to perform several areas of liposuction on fit people with "problem" areas such as the arms, thighs, neck, and abdomen. Make sure you select a board certified plastic surgeon with a lot of experience in liposuction.  Most surgeons like myself who specialize in body contouring perform several cases of liposuction per week and several hundred cases per year.

Liposuction safety is based on amount of fat/fluid removed and time in the OR. Most of us adhere to removing up to 5 liters and limiting OR/anesthesia time to 6 hours. Judging by your height and weight ( 5'3" and 115 lbs), you will not be anywhere near those limits. It appears to me that you need sculpting performed and should have no problems with multiple areas. This surgery should be performed by an experienced  Board Certified Plastic Surgeon only, in my opinion. Good luck.

Multiple areas of liposuction can be performed at once. Safety guidelines recommend no more than 5 Liters of liposuction or procedures longer than 6 hours. I routinely perform liposuction in multiple sites following these guidelines. From your height and weight information you mostly need sculpting, and I recommend the SmartLipo laser liposuction in order to increase skin contracture. Arms, thighs, and face can be performed at once, with general anesthesia or sedation. Buccal fat pad removal might be a better option for the face, but a consultation is required to determine.

Liposuction of the inner/outer/front thighs and knees can usually be done at 1  procedure and the jawline and arms with/without axillae can be done at a 2nd procedure 1 week later.  This is of course with the tumescent technique liposuction under local anesthesia. Trying to get it all done in only 1 procedure might be too risky and the doc may not be very thorough in each area so as to try to get to all the areas at 1 procedure so the end results may be disappointing. See several lipo docs and get their opinion. Good Luck,

David Hansen,MD

Without pictures or seeing you in person, it is impossible to let you know what to expect from liposuction or how much can be done at one time.  If you have moderate amounts of fat the be removed from multiple areas, then all the areas you mention could be treated at the same time.  However, the procedure is customized to your body and your needs and one answer does not apply to all patients.  Most patients have two to three areas treated at one time, such as abdomen/back/arms or thighs/back/arms or abdomen/arms/neck, etc...  If you are are in good shape but just need enhanced definition, then more areas can be treated.  

 

I hope this is helpful.

 

 

I think of liposuction as an internal burn. Meaning that the more liposuction have more stress you put on the body just like a burn put stress on the body. Nobody dies from a 5% body surface area burned but everybody dies from 100% of body surface area burn.

That's why a lot of people think when you get to about 5 L of fat removed it's probably time to stop because the more fat you remove the more fluid shifts you get and the more the stress the body. The other thing is blood loss you do lose blood with liposuction and that's something that the surgeon has to watch during the surgery. But the more volume you remove the more blood loss you have.

From what you describe I would guess the volume of fat that she would need removed is probably much less than 5 L. I would guess you would need 2 to 3 L removed. You can do liposuction in many areas it's more the total volume of fat removed, the amount of blood loss and the time of surgery that sets the safety limits to   liposuction.