Risks with the Liposuction Procedure

Featuring Dr. Nancy Van Laeken, MD, FRCSC

Duration: 1 minute, 24 seconds

The risks of liposuction can be focused on the area where the liposuction was performed or the general medical risks.

The biggest concern is usually having surface smoothness after liposuction so the risks can be skin tethering, dimpling of the skin, and if there is a lot of bruising sometimes that bruising leaves some staining in the skin so the skin has a pigmented color after the liposuction.There can also be numbness associated with that.

The general risks of liposuction can be quite serious. If very large volumes of liposuction is done and the patient is not adequately rehydrated very serious problems with dehydration, which will subsequently lead to fat embolism and pulmonary embolism which are conditions that affect the cardiac system and the lungs and can be fatal.

Therefore, patients do need to be made aware of that and the team that is treating the patient has to be sensitive to monitoring fluid volumes and making sure that they are appropriately resuscitated post-operatively.

In general, the risks of liposuction are quite low provided the appropriate patient is selected. They can be associated with dehydration and blood loss and various types of embolism. If a person is interested in pursuing liposuction they should speak to their family physician and be referred to a surgeon who performs liposuction.

Presenter: Dr. Nancy Van Laeken, Plastic Surgeon, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: Plastic Surgeon