Chance With Liposuction Surgery example essay topic

Liposuction: The Bad and The Ugly Due to the risk involved, liposuction is not the answer to having a great body. Liposuction is one of the most popular forms of cosmetic surgery today. Those seeking the perfect body seldom understand the risks involved in this invasive surgery. One of the risks of liposuction is that fat cells can grow back in the area where the procedure took place. Another risk associated with this procedure is over-aggressive fat removal. Poor work performed by untrained doctors poses many problems in itself.

Pulmonary Thrombosis, Lidocaine Toxicity, and imbalances of bodily fluids also are serious risks associated with liposuction, not to mention the ultimate danger with any surgery, death. What exactly is this procedure for which so many people are willing to take the chance? Liposuction is also known as and and is the most popular form of cosmetic surgery performed in the United States. Liposuction has been a means of contouring the body in one or more areas for the past twenty years. This surgery is mostly performed on women, but among men and older people, the surgery has become more popular. Also, this surgery has been classified as the rich person's surgery (Pavlovich-Danis, 2001, p. 1).

Liposuction begins by the surgeon making tiny incisions throughout the areas where the liposuction is going to be performed. Then the surgeon takes the cannula, narrow tube, and vacuums out the fat layer deep beneath the skin. The cannula then breaks up the fat cells by being pulled continuously back and forth throughout the skin. The broken up pieces of fat are then suctioned up by the cannula. The fat that is taken out is replaced by fluid, so that the patient does not go into shock ("New Image", 2001, p. 2). Even after this surgery, the results are not guaranteed.

After paying $6,000 for a liposuction procedure, there is still a good chance that the fat can grow back, therefore making the liposuction surgery useless. Liposuction is a temporary fix that should not be assumed to be permanent by the patient. Even after the patients have the surgery, if they were overweight before, they are still overweight (Rowland, 1998, p. 3). Besides the chance that the fat cells can return, the patient can put his or her health in jeopardy if excessive fat is removed. Overaggressive fat removal occurs when the surgeon tries to remove larger and larger quantities of fat, therefore increasing the chance of problems occuring.

The removal of 1,500 to 3,500 mL of fat or less does not pose that much of a risk. The chance of problems occuring increase when a larger volume of fat is removed, a number of areas are treated at the same time, and if the operative sites are larger in size than normal. The common recommendation of fat removal is not to exceed 12,000 mL, but some doctors do not take the patient's health into consideration and exceed 12,000 mL. Any doctor who performs large volume liposuction must be well trained and have lots of experience. Any patients who receive large volume liposuction should stay in an overnight facility where the patient may be monitored and given medical treatment if needed (Pavlovich-Danis, 2001, p. 3). Many of the risks associated with liposuction are due to the negligence of the surgeon or doctor performing the operation.

Due to the doctor's lack of qualifications, lack of experience, and lack of training there is a high risk of something going wrong during liposuction surgery. The New York State Senate Committee of Investigations performed an investigation of doctors performing surgeries in the private establishment of their offices over the course of nine months. Found in the investigation was that many doctors were performing surgeries outside the scope of their training ("Problems of Office", 1999, p. 2). Not all of the liposuction surgeons are by the American Board of Plastic Surgery (A BPS), which causes a major problem to the potential patient when trying to find a surgeon ("Board Certified", 2003, p. 1). An example of this common problem today occurs when a dermatologist performs liposuction without proper training and without being board certified. Also the investigation found that many doctors over sedate their patients during liposuction, and then lidocaine toxicity becomes a major factor.

Many doctors performing surgeries privately do not monitor their patients during surgery, and if does go wrong, the doctor is not equipped to handle emergencies ("Problems of Office", 1999, p. 1). Another risk brought upon the patient while undergoing the procedure of liposuction is pulmonary thromboembolism. Pulmonary thromboembolism attributed to 23.1 percent of the sixty deaths, which were caused by liposuction in the past five years. Pulmonary thromboembolism is a blood clot in the lungs, which is not that rare (Widemark, 2002, p. 1). The pulmonary emboli, or thromboembolism, can be directly related to re injected fat entering the venous circulation. Because the patient does not move, this may contribute to the development of deep pulmonary emboli (Pavlovich-Danis, 2001, p. 5).

Due to the liposuction procedure, the blood clot or fat embolism is discharged and causes circulatory problems (Widemark, 2002, p. 1). The symptoms of having pulmonary emboli are fever, shortness of breath, and confusion. These difficulties usually occur within 24 to 72 hours after surgery, after the patient is at home and is not monitored by a machine or a doctor (Pavlovich-Danis, 2001, p. 5). Lidocaine toxicity is a problem that is becoming more of an issue among liposuction patients. Lidocaine is an analgesic, a drug used to numb the body, that is put into the body with the tumescent, the most common type of liposuction procedure, wet solution used when liposuction is performed ("Safety and Complications", 2002, p. 1). Small amounts of lidocaine are put into the tumescent wet solution when surgery is performed, but when large amounts of wetting solution are used, it can allow toxic amounts of lidocaine to enter the bloodstream and cause reactions to occur in the body.

The recommended lidocaine content is 55 milligrams / kilograms of the patient's body weight (Pavlovich-Danis, 2002, p. 5). What happens first is that lidocaine and cytochrome inhibitors compete to become substrates for the enzyme cytochrome. Rapidly and almost exclusively, lidocaine is eliminated by the P 450 inhibitor, which starts the lidocaine toxicity process. When using general anesthesia or an intravenous analgesic, the anesthesiologist should not use and if the patient is on medications inhibiting cytochrome P 450. Also the anesthesiologist should warn the surgeon that there are large amounts of lidocaine in the tumescent solution. If the anesthesiologist does not take the necessary precautions to check the patient's medications and the amount of lidocaine in the tumescent solution, then there is a higher probability of lidocaine toxicity ("Safety and Complications", 2002, p. 2).

Lidocaine toxicity occurs when the lidocaine injected into the body is at an excessive amount and causes the body to go into seizures and suppressed cardiac function. Higher blood levels in the body increase the risk of lidocaine toxic dy also (Pavlovich-Danis, 2002, p. 5). Lidocaine toxicity is an up and coming problem in the liposuction field, but another common problem right now is fluid imbalance. Physiological changes in fluid imbalance after liposuction cause the same amount of damage that fire does to burn victims (Pavlovich-Danis, 2002, p. 4). Fluid injected into tissues after liposuction may result in fluid overload causing complications such as, an abnormally low volume of circulating blood, pulmonary edema, and congestive heart failure (Pavlovich-Danis, 2001, p. 6). Other factors, such as hypothyroidism or an inappropriate secretion of anti diuretic hormone, may hinder the body's ability to excrete large volumes of fluid delivered during surgery, further increasing the risk of post-operative complications (Pavlovich-Danis, 2001, p. 4).

Another hazard of fluid imbalance is excessive fluid loss, which can lead to shock (Men dieta, 2001, p. 1). Of course shock can lead to death. Death is the ultimate price that the liposuction patient can pay. A survey performed on 1,200 plastic surgeons uncovered the fact that ninety-five deaths in nearly 500,000 liposuction procedures have occurred (Morell, 2000, p. 1). This would be a mortality rate of about one in 5,000 (Morell, 2000, p. 2). Pulmonary embolism, which is a blood clot in the lungs, toxic reactions to anesthesia and cardiac arrest are the main causes of fatalities.

These potential risks outweigh taking a chance with liposuction surgery. Positive effects of liposuction can be attributed to new technology which has been introduced to the field. A new liposuction procedure called Ultrasound- assisted liposuction (ultrasonic liposuction) is safer and more proficient way to remove unwanted fat. This new technique uses ultrasound wave vibrations to break up fat in before it is removed. After the fat is broken up by the sound waves the cannula then is inserted into the body and sucks the fat out. This technique is safer to the patient because the fat is already broken up by the sound waves, instead of the traditional method of inserting the cannula into the body and scraping the fat out ("Plastic Surgery Network", 2003, p. 1).

Having the perfect body comes at a higher price than just dollars and cents. The invasive procedure of liposuction poses many risks to the patient. There is no guarantee that the removal of fat cells is permanent. The removal of excessive fat can put the patient at risk. Doctors with little or no training can perform this cosmetic surgery in ill-equipped office settings. Other complications such as pulmonary thrombosis, lidocaine toxicity, and imbalances of bodily fluids can lead to serious health issues.

Ultimately, the highest price to pay for is the patient paying with his or her life.