Simultaneous Separation and Tumescence: A New Paradigm for Liposuction Donor Site Preparation

Area of Science:

• Plastic Surgery
• Surgical Innovation

Background:

• Liposuction and fat transplantation are increasingly popular in the US due to their safety and effectiveness.
• Technical advancements like tumescent infiltration and fat separation improve outcomes but increase procedure time.
• Simultaneous separation and tumescence (SST) is a novel technique merging these innovations for enhanced liposuction safety and efficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the authors' technique for Simultaneous separation and tumescence (SST) in over 1200 patients across 6 years.
• To compare the vasoconstrictive effectiveness of SST with traditional Klein infiltration techniques using a split abdomen study design.

Main Methods:

• A split abdomen study was conducted comparing SST with traditional Klein infiltration.
• Quantification perfusion analysis using indocyanine green angiography was performed on 4 patients.
• Mean relative vasoconstriction scores were calculated for each technique relative to the umbilicus.

Main Results:

• Simultaneous separation and tumescence (SST) demonstrated significantly higher vasoconstriction compared to Klein infiltration (89.6% vs 48.1% at 2 minutes, P < 0.0001).
• SST exhibited a similar complication rate and utilized comparable infiltrative volumes to traditional Klein tumescence techniques.

Conclusions:

• Simultaneous separation and tumescence (SST) offers a significant advancement over the traditional Klein tumescence method for liposuction.
• SST is expected to lead to more efficient surgical times and potentially enable safer extraction of larger fat volumes.