LIPOEDEMA
"Medical professionals poorly understand Lipoedema, and there is not enough clinical literature on the disease"
- Dr PUNEET GUPTA
ABOUT
PROCESS
AFTERCARE
COST
ABOUT lipoedema
Lipoedema is a fat condition that mostly affects women and causes excessive fat accumulation in some body areas, causing it to appear out of shape or out of proportion. It mostly affects the lower limbs, resulting in a lower body that is disproportionately high compared to the upper body.
A lot is still unknown about lipoedema, especially what causes it? We know that it is a slowly progressive condition, and the pace of progression varies from one patient to another.
Genetics is known to play a significant role in combination with a hormonal imbalance inside the body, mainly around puberty, pregnancy, menopause, etc.
Most women can notice an obvious trigger of their condition around those events in their life. It can affect several generations of a family.
Lipoedema patients usually experience disproportionate fatty distribution unresponsive to any diet or exercise, fast bruising from minor trauma, and a sensation of heaviness and discomfort.
Fat cells, capillaries, and venules are all involved in lipoedema. Since fat cells grow in size, the region becomes larger, and capillaries are permeable, lipoedema develops in the area, causing pain. Venules are very fragile, making them prone to bruising.
There is, therefore, no permanent cure for it, as it is described as a progressive condition. However, the treatment options for containing or slowing disease progression are conservative and surgical for improving the patient's quality of life.
Conservative therapy in manual lymphatic drainage (MLD) can help reduce lipoedema, but it does not affect fat volume.
The only way to reduce the bulk of fatty deposits is fat removal or liposuction. When treating lipoedema, it is important to choose the right form of liposuction. The majority of lipoedema expertise believes that chronic lipoedema can lead later in life to lymphoedema.
Therefore, we must use a technique that prevents any external energy form (laser, ultrasounds, radio-frequence, etc.) to minimise the localised damages in the tissue and use as small as possible tools to spare the lymph noise.
Dr Gupta has helped many people with lipoedema with a state-of-the-art microcannular liposuction technique. Dr Gupta is one of the only surgeons in Europe to practise this technique by the creator of Microlipo, Dr Jeffrey Klein.
Microlipo is a widely recognised and appropriate means of managing and alleviating symptoms, while no known cure for lipoedema is currently found.
The operation is performed with small instruments (cannulas) of up to 2mm thickness to remove the fat and ensure a smooth and natural result. Dr Gupta uses local anaesthesias rather than general anaesthesia.
Progressive lipoedema can be classified into several different stages:
Stage I: skin surface remains normal, but with palpation, the small nodular fatty tissue structure can be felt
Stage II: skin surface is uneven with a nodular fat structure
Stage III: there is a lobular deformation due to increased fatty
tissue, often with tissue ‘sacks’ on the inner side of the legs
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PROCESS
Liposuction is not a cosmetic procedure but a treatment that reduces tissue, pain and bruising and improves mobility, functionality and life quality.
NICE ( National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) currently reviews the treatment of chronic lipoedema through liposuction. This can help to identify liposuction as an effective surgical treatment for lipoedema patients because, at present, access to liposuction in the NHS is often limited and can be classified as a cosmetic treatment that does not qualify for patients with lipoedema.
The liposuction can be carried out step-by-step between treatments in all parts of the body with an interval of 4-6 weeks. The liposuction effects may last for years following the initial series of operations. It could take decades for the fat volume of a patient to rise again.
In every area of the body, Liposuction can be performed at an interval of 4-6 weeks between treatments step by step. The effect of liposuction can last for years following the initial series of operations. It could take decades before the fat volume of a patient rises again.
Microlipo perforated mainly as a day case procedure under local anaesthesia offers the safest option for a slow but more important lipoedema, which safely reduces the mass of fatty disease. With tiny instrument or cans of approximately 1-1,8 mm thick, it's lymph sparing with very little tissue trauma and rapid recovery times without any heating. No blood loss and no hospital stay after the procedure are necessary.
The procedures are done step-by-step, usually starting with the outer thighs, and split over a timeframe of up to about six weeks.
AFTERCARE
All patients must wear compression clothing after the procedure to speed up their recovery and minimise post-operative bruising. Inside thighs and lower legs are challenging areas from a recovery point of view, and such patients should wear their compression clothing for at least two weeks and rest with raised legs as much as possible.
After the procedure, compression apparel is applied, and the patient is informed about how to ensure that the area is compressed until two weeks after the procedure.
There is little or no bruising due to the specialised nature of the procedure and postoperative drainage.
A treatment plan is agreed upon at your consultation. Checks will continue for several weeks while our friendly team will help patients rework as their lives can be changed rapidly.
COST
While the cost of liposuction for lipoedema is naturally a major factor in the study of an operation, it should not be the most important factor.
Several factors determine the costs of an operation, the most important being the amount of time and effort on the surgeon's part.
Dr Gupta will consider the number of areas being treated when agreeing on a cost for the procedure and whether all can be treated in "one sitting." The patient's size, area of treatment and expected degree of difficulty of the specific procedure are also considered.
In certain areas, the total cost will be affected by more time and attention than elsewhere.
Dr Gupta is only involved in the liposuction procedure with clients he feels will benefit.
No customer is the same, and Dr Gupta can measure suitability only after consultation and then propose a procedure cost.
