Liposuction Zones of Adherence

Zones of adherence are areas where the skin inserts more directly into the underlying muscles with litte fatty tissue in between. In some areas, such as under the buttock, in the inner thigh, and on the back, the surgeon should avoid over-treatment. Right before your procedure, the surgeon should use a pen to mark on the body and "map out" the areas of treatment. I like to use a green sharpie to mark the areas of treatment and a red sharpie to mark the "no go" zones. The zones of adherence would be excentuated with a red sharpie so that once you are laying down, I know to avoid over-treating in these areas.

Zones of adherence refer to areas where the skin is densely attached to the underlying muscles or bone. Disrupting these will make the skin less adherent and can make it slide down like a poorly fitted suit. For exmaple doing circumferential liposuction on the thigh and interruppting the inner and outer zones of adherence will make the skin of the thigh slide down like a poorly fitted sleeve gathering at the knee with numerous contour irregulatrities.

read Dr. Wallach's ( my friend in NYC) post. short simple and true. bottom line is don't suction where there is little to no fat as the chance of creating an indentation is too high.

I agree with Dr. Commons. Zones of adherence are names area  of little to no fat deposit that so to speak keep things in place.  They are areas to avoid aggressive liposuction ( because there is really very little fat there).

Yes this has been discussed and I think it is fun info with minimal clinical implication.  A nice laboratory bit of additional consfusion.  Go stand in fron of a mirror and study your back and trunk and stomach.  Note in the back there are horizontal-daigonal zones that appear deeper than other surrounding areas particularly around the back rolls.  2 or 3  on each side.  In front on your abdomen note the transverse line above you umbilicus.   The surgeon needs to register these but any surgeon worth their salt can get about this and get a great result.  I have done so many lipos that I dont even ponder these although I am aware.  The back zones used to be difficult but with Vaser Ultrasonic Liposuction the Back Rolls are easy and any zones are meaningless.  On the abdomen the transverse zone in some people is pronounced and the sulgeon need to be aware but this is easily delt with.  Go to a surgeon that does a lot of liposuction and is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and A Fellow....FACS....indicating a real surgon recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialists and not a pretend surgon certified by self proclimation.  Shop carefully.  It is a mine field out there.    Good Luck.

An example of these zones can be seen in the back of the thigh where there is a ladder like array of cross striations that you can often see in folks.  Liposuction here can make these worse.