A Prospective Study Determining Patient Satisfaction with Combined Cryolipolysis and Shockwave Therapy Treatment for Noninvasive Body Contouring.

Abstract

With an increased interest in nonsurgical and minimally invasive body fat reduction and body contouring procedures with limited side effects and downtime, cryolipolysis has emerged as a compelling and safe alternative to surgical fat removal methods. A massage of the treated areas generally follows cryolipolysis treatment to improve blood circulation and increase apoptotic fat cells' removal. In this study, following cryolipolysis, we used shockwave therapy instead of massage to enhance the results of the body contouring treatment and improve the patient's comfort. We then assessed patients' comfort and satisfaction using the combination of cryolipolysis and shockwave therapy in reducing fat volume. We conducted a prospective study of 30 patients who underwent at least one cryolipolysis therapy cycle followed by shockwave treatment. Subjects were given a posttreatment questionnaire to assessthe patient's comfort andsatisfaction degree with the combination of cryolipolysis and shockwave therapy for fat reduction. Answers were recorded on afive-pointLikert-stylescale, entered into a database and were analyzed. We found an overall high satisfaction rate for most patients when treated with shockwave therapy after cryolipolysis treatment. The majority of patients described the discomfort associated with treatment as minimal or tolerable (76.7%) and were prepared to recommend cryolipolysis treatment followed by shockwave therapy to friends (68.9%). Overall, 76.7% of patients found the combination therapy comfortable, 68.3% were satisfied with the results, 57.7% said the results met their expectations. The most important aspects of body contouring methods is a patient's safety, comfort, satisfaction and self-image improvement. In this study, we report a high level of patient satisfaction when using a combination of fat reduction procedures of cryolipolysis followed by shockwave therapy. The majority of cases report being satisfied or extremely satisfied with the treatment and found this body contouring combination method comfortable. Cryolipolysis combined with shockwave treatment appears to be a safe and efficient way of reducing the size of localized and stubborn fat deposits for subjects who desire nonsurgical localized fat reduction. This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266.