Glossary of Terms for Liposuction in Beverly Hills
Helping You Better Understand the Procedure
There are a variety of common terms used to discuss lipo, whether talking about surgical tools or in knowing what to expect during your procedure and recovery. This liposuction glossary offers Beverly Hills patients a quick overview of some of the more frequently used words they can expect to hear during their consultation.
Learn more about our liposuction options, give us a call at (310) 984-1150.
Liposuction Terms
- Some helpful terms to know before your procedure include:
- Anesthetic: A drug that minimizes sensation to keep patients comfortable throughout their procedure. A local anesthetic is applied to a single area, while a general anesthetic puts patients completely to sleep.
- Cannula: A hollow surgical tube used to reduce the fat cells during liposuction.* Cannulas come in a variety of different sizes, but those used during lipo are only a few millimeters in diameter.
- Edema: This is a swelling caused by fluid buildup.
- Embolism: A potential surgical complication of liposuction, an embolism occurs when a blood vessel is blocked.
- Emulsify: To combine into a liquid form.
- Epinephrine: Often included as part of a tumescent solution, epinephrine constricts the blood vessels to minimize excess bleeding during your procedure.
- Fat Transfer: Liposuction can be used to reduce living fat cells in order to inject them elsewhere in the body as an augmentation procedure.* This process is called fat transfer.
- Infection: Multiplying bacteria that invade the body and can cause injury to the tissues.
- Laser Liposuction: Uses a special laser probe to rupture fat cells prior to reduce with suction.*
- Lidocaine: Another component of a tumescent solution, lidocaine is one type of local anesthetic.
- Lipoplasty: The official medical term for liposuction.
- Liposuction: The surgical reduction of fat cells via suction for aesthetic body sculpting.*
- Liposculpture: An alternate term for liposuction.
- Necrosis: A type of bacterial infection that causes death of the skin and connective tissues. Necrotizing Fasciitis is a rare type of potential complication following lipo.
- PAL: Power Assisted Liposuction uses the assistance of a rapidly vibrating cannula to aid the surgeon in breaking up fat deposits.
- Paresthesia: After liposuction, some patients may experience numbness, tingling or other sensory changes, which together are characterized as paresthesia.
- Pulmonary Embolism: An embolism that is localized to the lungs, causing shortness of breath.
- Sedative: A medication that helps patients relax during their procedure.
- Seroma: A pooling of fluid that collects at the liposuction site.
- Toxic Shock Syndrome: A rare complication of liposuction, TSS is diagnosed when surgery dislodges bacteria and toxins into the body.
- UAL: Ultrasound-Assisted Liposuction uses ultrasonic waves to break up and loosen fat cells in order to facilitate their reduction.*
- Visceral Perforations: When organs are mistakenly grazed or punctured by the cannula during lipo.
Contact us at (310) 984-1150 for more information.