You can just tap wherever you want to lose weight. Why does such a simple operation have a risk of death?

Audit expert: Zhang Yuhong

Zhengzhou Central Hospital Affiliated to Zhengzhou University

Deputy Chief Physician of Dermatology

Not being able to control your diet and not being able to move your legs are two big obstacles that stand in the way of many people losing weight. How to lose weight easily, many people who are trying to lose weight are struggling to find the answer to this question.

Source | Internet

Since exercise consumes fat so slowly, can surgery to remove fat directly from the body achieve the same effect? ​​It would be great if we could remove fat without the need for hard exercise, and at a faster rate.

For this reason, many medical beauty institutions have launched liposuction surgeries, all of which are under the banner of "safe, permanent, and no rebound."

A recent tragedy caused by liposuction surgery

Source | Weibo screenshot

However, medical accidents happen frequently, and people continue to die from liposuction. We can't help but ask, can liposuction really make people "lose weight" easily and safely as advertised by medical beauty institutions?

1

Liposuction is not a minor surgery!

Liposuction, as the most commonly used local weight loss surgery, is based on the principle of sucking subcutaneous fat accumulated in a local area of ​​the human body out of the body, thereby achieving the effect of weight loss and local body shaping.

Source | See watermark

According to statistics, the mortality rate of local liposuction is 1 in 100,000 to 1 in 50,000. If other surgeries such as breast augmentation are performed at the same time as liposuction, the mortality rate will increase to 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 5,000.

Why does a simple operation of “punishing the part that is not thin” have such a big risk?

The metal tube goes deep into the skin to suck out fat

Source | American Society of Plasic Surgeons

The purpose of medical cosmetic surgery is to look beautiful, but sucking out superficial fat is more likely to cause uneven skin. Therefore, the operator often chooses to suck out fat from deeper layers, which may cause puncture of internal organs. According to statistics, the mortality rate of internal organ injury exceeds 50%. In addition, fat embolism caused by the shedding of fat fragments and anesthesia during surgery may cause serious tissue damage and even endanger life.

Although the incision of liposuction surgery is small, the area involved is large and the operation time is relatively long, so there is a high possibility of bacterial contamination during the operation, which may cause serious consequences.

2

Fatal necrotizing soft tissue infection

Among the infections caused by liposuction surgery, there is a rare but very dangerous condition called necrotizing fasciitis.

In anatomy, there are two types of fascia: superficial fascia and deep fascia. The superficial fascia is located below the skin and is composed of loose connective tissue and fat; the deep fascia, also known as the epimysium, is a dense connective tissue that wraps around the entire muscle and contains abundant blood vessels and nerves.

Necrotizing fasciitis is a progressive infectious disease caused by bacteria, often caused by mixed infection of multiple pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella, Escherichia coli, etc. The main manifestation is the spread of infection along the deep fascia, causing extensive and rapid necrosis of subcutaneous tissue and fascia.

Fascia diagram

Source | Sohu.com

In the early stages of infection, only general symptoms such as redness, swelling, heat and pain appear, and characteristic signs such as crepitus and blisters are relatively rare. In the middle stage of infection, blood clots appear in the blood vessels where the infection accumulates, ischemia leads to tissue necrosis, and blisters of varying sizes appear on the skin surface. In the late stage of the disease, extensive necrosis and liquefaction of the skin and fascia tissues occur, accompanied by severe nerve damage and toxemia. At this time, patients often experience systemic symptoms such as hypotension, loss of consciousness, and acute organ failure, and the mortality rate is very high.

Necrotizing fasciitis can be secondary to any skin injury or blood-borne transmission, and early diagnosis and the use of antibiotics are of great significance for treatment. However, due to the rapid onset and progression of this infectious disease, as well as the lack of typical symptoms in the early stages, misdiagnosis often occurs clinically, leading to untimely treatment, serious complications and sequelae, and even death of patients.

3

Is liposuction necessary?

In addition to the possible risks of surgery, the effectiveness of liposuction surgery also needs to be scrutinized.

Subcutaneous fat and visceral fat

Source | Sohu.com

Here, we need to make it clear that liposuction can only reduce local subcutaneous fat, but cannot eliminate visceral fat. Studies have shown that after obese people undergo liposuction to lose weight, the risk of cardiovascular disease, high blood sugar, fatty liver and other diseases has not decreased. Therefore, liposuction surgery is only a cosmetic method and has little value for health.

So, will liposuction surgery definitely achieve the body shaping effect that people want?

Liposuction surgery causes uneven abdomen

Source | sunsetcosmeticsurgery

First of all, the effect of liposuction surgery is closely related to the operator's surgical skills. If it is not possible to achieve uniform suction at multiple angles and reduce local fat evenly and smoothly, it will usually cause unevenness on the body surface. These changes may be permanent and seriously affect the appearance.

Not only that, people who undergo the surgery need to wear elastic clothing for several months to allow the skin to gradually shrink and restore its elasticity. If the skin is thin or has poor elasticity, "reconstruction" surgery is required to remove excess skin and then re-suture it.

Moreover, liposuction surgery is not as easy as advertised by major institutions to maintain the slimming effect without rebound. If there is no corresponding exercise and diet plan to maintain the body shape after the surgery, then even if the ideal surgical effect is temporarily achieved, you will gain weight again after a period of time. The result is that a risky surgery was done in vain.

Therefore, liposuction is not just a simple minor operation as many people think. Friends who want to reshape their bodies and lose weight through liposuction must make a decision after fully understanding the risks and precautions of the operation.

Finally, I want to say that reasonable diet control and scientific exercise shaping can also achieve the weight loss effect we want, and it is safer. And for many people, instead of considering whether to undergo liposuction surgery, it is more important to eliminate appearance anxiety. After all, health is our most precious wealth.

Source: Digital Beijing Science Center