RADIO FREQUENCY ASSISTED LIPOSCULPTURE (RFAL): BODYTITE

Pain after surgery is mild and well controlled with oral pain medication. Moderate swelling and bruising are common side effects. The bruising usually takes two to three weeks to subside. If a drain has been used, as is usually the case, the swelling subsides much faster, and more often than half will have subsided by two weeks. The amount of drainage is carefully monitored on a daily basis and the drain is removed once the daily amount of drainage is low enough. Stitches are removed after one week. Downtime ranges from a few days to about one week, depending on the amount of work done.

Compression garments are worn over the treated body parts for a total of six weeks, initially all the time for the first two weeks, then about half the time for the next two weeks, followed by nightly for the last two weeks. Exercise can be resumed at one month after surgery. By three months, about ninety percent of the final result can usually be seen, with the final result being attained at about six months postoperatively.

The results are normally long lasting as long as body weight is maintained.

Risks associated with liposuction include blood loss, infection, uneven contours, and skin burns. Blood loss is carefully managed by technical measures that minimize bleeding during the procedure. If large volumes of fat are to be removed, a planned blood transfusion using the patient’s own blood previously donated to the blood bank specifically for this purpose is carried out. This is known as autologous blood transfusion, and the blood is transfused immediately after the surgery.

Another useful blood preservation technique that is used for large volume liposuction is hemodilution. In this technique, one or two units of blood are drawn out by the anesthetist at the start of the operation, and transfused back into the patient at the end of the surgery. These types of proactive management of blood loss ensure that the patient does not lose excessive amounts blood from the procedure, and maintains the safety of the procedure.

Infection is rare, and is prevented by attention to sterility during the procedure and prophylactic antibiotics.

The problem of uneven contours caused by uneven fat removal is minimized by the liquefying effect of the RF energy on the solid fat.

The RF energy of BodyTite translates into heat energy. This is what produces the skin tightening effect. However, excessive heat energy applied to the skin can cause burns. Therefore, several technical precautions are observed in using this technology that ensure that the risk of this complication is low.