Will Not Wearing a Compression Garment Affect Final Results on Neck?

I like compression for longer periods than most surgeons.  I joke:  Wear it till you hate me!  Seriously, compression has great advantages and like with a lot of things, the more you put into it the more you get in return.  That being said, 48 hours is probably enough time for the flap to BEGIN to stick down and stay where it was supposed to be.

In my experience, and I do a lot of neck, chin and jaw lipo, those that wear the garment more frequently get quicker and better results.It makes sense intuitively also. The is a layer of skin, then a layer a fat, then a layer of muscle deeper. We remove most of the fat. Then the goal is for the skin to scar to the muscle evenly and smoothly. The garment is your best bet to make this happen. After the surgery edema will start to set in. This is not a hard stop but it does make the results take more time to set in. It can also lead to asymmetries and lumps or bumps in the healing process.Hope this helps.Best of luck,DrC

Thank you for your question.  I will always strap my patients neck after lipo and sometimes give them a compression garment to wear to decrease the amount of swelling (strapped for 7 days).  48 hours of compression should be enough to not affect results however I would encourage 7 days.All The Best 

It’s not unusual
for surgeons to recommend the use of compression garments following neck
liposuction.  Although, the
majority of plastic surgeons recommend some type of compression, there are
surgeons who don’t always recommend compression. It’s important to understand
that every patient’s situation is unique.

The importance of
compressive chin straps depends on a variety of factors.  These might include the amount of fat
removed and the patient’s baseline skin laxity to name a few. In some cases,
not wearing a compression garment may have no significance.  In other cases, it might be the
difference between an excellent result and an average result.

We generally
recommend the use of chin straps day and night for one week.  This is followed by night time use for
an additional 2 to 3 weeks following neck liposuction.  We also recommend a low salt diet
before and after neck liposuction.

It’s important to
discuss this issue with your surgeon before proceeding with surgery so you will
have an understanding of why post-operative compression garments are important
for you.  In some cases, premature
cessation of compression might adversely impact the results of liposuction.  In the vast majority of cases, it would
probably not affect the result, but instead lead to prolonged swelling.

Fist of all, every patient is different, and each surgeon may have his/her own protocol.  The protocol is usually in line with their particular procedure for that particular patient.  Our office has the patients wear compression garments as we believe it decreases swelling and improves contour.  The idea is to have the skin attach down to the underlying tissues.  Please ask your individual surgeon what he/she likes and then do what he/she says.