Burns 1 Katie Burns Prof.

Presnell English 1102 6 April 2012 Liposuction One of the first procedures of liposuction ever performed resulted in the amputation of a patients leg. As it was explained by Ralph William Ahern in The History of Liposuction, the patient wanted to remove fat from her legs and ankles around the year of 1921. The surgery was performed by Dr. Charles Dujarrier by using a uterine curette, one of the first techniques of liposuction. This technique was one of the most dangerous forms of liposuction and as a result the womans femoral artery was injured, and her leg had to be amputated. It is important for people to know that a surgery like liposuction which isnt that invasive can have major complications, and that the patient should know everything about the procedure before thinking about getting it done. Since the uterine curette incident not many people took interest into liposuction because of how dangerous it was. The next well known technique of liposuction was dermolipectomy which was performed by Dr. Pitanguy in the 1960s. Dermolipectomy was safer than the technique using the uterine curette but still caused an excess amount of scaring compared to liposuction in the modern world. The dry technique of liposuction was introduced soon after dermolipectomy in 1976. It was performed by a machine assisted lipectomy through blunt cannulas. (Ahern). A father and

Burns 2 son named Giorgio and Arpad Fischer invented this technique along with the criss-crossing technique. They also introduced liposuction to many people around the world, which resulted in the procedure becoming more popular. Although their technique was safer than using a uterine curette, it still wasnt safe enough. Common complications that were a result of this procedure were hematoma and seroma formation. The next step in the evolution of liposuction involved the wet tumescent technique invented by Dr.Yves Illouz. This technique minimized blood loss by making the skin swell up and preserving neurovascular bundles in the fat to nourish the overlying skin. (Ahern). It wasnt until 1987 when the modern technique of liposuction was invented. This technique was called tumescent liposuction and it involved two different forms; true tumescent liposuction and semi-tumescent liposuction. True tumescent liposuction involved using only a local anesthetic to minimize major complications. The anesthesia used is large volumes of dilute lidocaine and dilute epinephrine. With this technique blood loss is minimized as well safety for the patient. Semi-tumescent liposuction is done by using general anesthesia or IV sedation and it isnt as safe as true tumescent liposuction due to the amount of anesthesia. Semi tumescent has major risks to follow because of the amount of toxicity in the general anesthesia. It ignores the possibility of a safer procedure by using local anesthesia. This is when major complications, like death, come in to play. Every death reported in association with liposuction has been associated with general anesthesia, heavy ID sedation, or bupivacaine. (Klein). One can say that it is a better choice to follow the route with a local anesthesia than to risk ones life by using general anesthesia. In a scholarly journal performed by Dr. Louis Habbema it was stated that out of 3,240 true tumescent procedures performed only 9 overall complications occurred which is a

Burns 3 significantly small number for this kind of procedure proving it to be one of the safest cosmetic procedures today. What are the Risks? Before undergoing any type of surgery the patient must be informed of all of the serious risks or complications that can possibly occur. Although tumescent liposuction is one of the safest cosmetic procedures performed in the United States, complications can still occur. Of course infection is the number one complication that can be a result of any surgical procedure. Most surgeons give their patients antibiotics before surgery to prevent infections. Every patient must keep the site of the wound clean at all times to prevent infection. Infections can lead to life threatening serious circumstances such as necrotizing fasciitis (which eats away the tissue), or toxic shock syndrome. Embolism is another serious complication that can develop. According to the FDA in What are the Risks or Complications embolism happens when fat is loosened and enters the blood through ruptured blood vessels (which happen as a result of the surgery). The fat that enters the blood vessels can be trapped and travel to the lungs, or even the brain which can turn into a life or death situation. Symptoms of this disease can involve shortness of breath or difficulty breathing. Just like any surgery, visceral perforations of the organs can occur (an internal puncture wound). During the liposuction procedure the surgery is unable to see where the instrument is, and has to follow it through a camera so sometimes they accidently puncture an organ. This complication may cause for the patient to have another surgery to fix the perforation due to the amount of damage.

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Burns 5 Works Cited Ahern, Ryan William. "The History of Liposuction." Seminars In Cutaneous Medicine And Surgery 28.Advances in Body Shaping (2009): 208-211. ScienceDirect. Web. 11 Mar. 2012. FDA. What Are The Risks or Complications? U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2012) Web. 10 March 2012. HABBEMA, LOUIS. "Safety of Liposuction Using Exclusively Tumescent Local Anesthesia in 3,240 Consecutive Cases." Dermatologic Surgery 35.11 (2009): 1728-1735. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. Heftel, Christian. What Psychological Effects Can Liposuction Have? Ezine Articles. Health and Fitness. Cosmetic Surgery. (2009). Web. 10 Mar. 2012. Klein, Jeffrey A. Two Standards for Tumescent Liposuction. Liposuction 101. Dermatologic Surgery. (1997). Web. 10 March 2012. Personal Interview. Burns, Alyssa. 19 March 2012.

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REFLECTION 1. What was the hardest part of putting your sources together and writing this essay? I couldnt quite figure out how I wanted to put everything together in my paper. Making an outline definitely helped me out on that part but it was still difficult on using my sources in all of the right places and not citing them too much to where it would make the paper seem like it was all just from other articles. 2. What do you like best about what youve done? I like learning about what I have learned. Through this project I have learned a lot about liposuction that I probably wouldnt have researched before. Everything was really interesting to me as well because I want to be a nurse so everything involving like surgery or something with health interests me that am why I really liked writing what I wrote about.

3. What class activities/brainstorming activities worked best to help you get your ideas together? Writing thesis questions Talking headers My coyote story, ad nauseum Class peer reviews and responses to your essay Working with others **All of the above helped me to get my ideas together. The talking headers helped me to separate everything in my paper in an organized manner. Your story gave me an example of what my paper should involve and look like based on the correct format and correct usage of sources. Working with others always helps me to do better on major projects, and the class peer reviews helped me to see the bad parts in my paper that I wouldnt have picked out or seem myself. 4. What have you learned about writing an essay with research that you didnt know before? What have you learned to do better than you did in the past? I have learned that writing a research paper involved a lot of things and it takes a while to put all of your ideas together to somewhat write the paper to perfection. I have learned that it helps to do all of the little activities we did in class for our paper and it helps to break everything up in little pieces. I have learned how to better organize my paper in a way that makes since and not just a bunch of words cluttered around. I have also learned to write about something that is interesting for me. That helps me to write a better paper because I want to find out more and write more knowing how I like to write it.

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