Microcannular liposuction in tumescent anesthesia in lipedema patients: an analysis of 519 liposuctions

Abstract

This is aretrospective analysis of all lipedema patients treated by tumescent liposuction at our department in the years 2007-2021: We performed 519 liposuctions in 178patients with amean age of 45 ± 15.5years. By the stage of lipedema the mean age increased significantly, what underlines the concept of lipedema as achronic progressive disorder. Three-thirds of patients reported at least one comorbidity. The most common were arterial hypertension (32.58%), obesity (24.16%), and hypothyroidism (20.79%). We removed amean lipoaspirate volume of 4905 ± 2800 mL. Amajor target for treatment is pain reduction. All patients reported at least a50% pain reduction after liposuction, while 96achieved apain reduction ≥ 90%. The pre-operative pain intensity (p = 0.000) and the lipedema stage (p = 0.032) exerted asignificant impact on absolute pain reduction. There was no association of pain reduction to volume loss. The post-operative rate of adverse events was 2.89%. Liposuction in tumescent anesthesia is an effective and safe method to reduce both pain and volume in patients with lipedema.