Abstract

Liposuction was described in the 1920s & popularised in 1977 by Illouz. He developed smaller diameter blunt cannulas. To add safety he also developed the wet technique to reduce blood loss. Tumescent anaesthesia described by Klein in 1987 made large volume liposuction safer allowing for more refined body contouring through significantly minimizing blood loss. Liposuction journey started as mechanical debulking that evolved over the last 4 decades into a refined high definition body contouring and proportioning surgery, thus making sculpturing a shape of figurine possible. To achieve such high definition body sculpting third-generation ultrasound technology (VASER) not only improved the safety profile of the procedure but also achieved outcomes that cannot be matched with the older methods of liposuction, under local anaesthesia. In this presentation I would like to discuss the journey of how liposuction evolved into body contouring surgery with large volume lipoaspirates with increased safety.