The History Of Liposuction

Author: lello

2008-05-22 Word Count: 560 Category: Humanities

The history of liposuction documents new innovations combined with continuous advancements to assist people in improving their genetically programmed body shape.Within the past 20 years, the medical and scientific community has come to understand the large degree of genetic influence on both weight and body shape. Family photographs of several generations document that one’s body shape is largely inherited. Numerous studies have detailed the role of genetics in obesity. We know that humans for thousands of years have desired an improved appearance by noting the extensive use of cosmetics throughout time. But as time has proven, diet or exercise programs cannot address issues of localized areas of adiposity. Tumescent liposuction is needed to correct these genetic aspects of body shape. The roots of liposuction go back to the 1920s. A French surgeon, Charles Dujarrier, attempted to improve a ballet dancer’s large calves and knees by using an intrauterine curette to remove the fat. An unfortunate result occurred. Other surgeons through the 1960s attempted to improve body shape by removing subcutaneous fat. Both curettage and en bloc removal were attempted but without good aesthetic results.
Modern liposuction was initiated with the pioneering work of two American surgeons working in Rome, Arpad and Giorgio Fischer.They developed the concept of the use of suction using a blunt, hollow cannula to aspirate subcutaneous fat.Some of their cannulas contained cutting abilities, and they reported good results obtained with these new instruments. The results were initially published in 1976.The Fischers can be credited with other developments such as the use of the cross tunneling technique in which the fat is aspirated from multiple entry sites.

Pierre Fournier has done much to develop and promote modern liposuction.Fournier showed an early interest in the Fischers’ liposculpture technique and helped promote modern liposuction techniques to physicians all over the world. Illouz, also in Paris, favored a “wet technique” in which hypotonic saline combined with hyaluronidase was infiltrated into the adipose tissue and prior to suction removal. He felt this would reduce trauma and decrease bleeding. His techniques also included the use of blunt cannulas. He, along with Fournier, taught and promoted their techniques to physicians in multiple specialties internationally.Dissemination of Liposuction Techniques In 1977,while attending a meeting in Paris, dermatologic surgeon Larry Field observed the Fischers and Fournier perform liposuction using the Fischers’ machine. Other Americans subsequently developed an interest in the technique. A group of physicians from differing specialties received instruction from Illouz and Fournier in mid 1982. Claude Caver and Arthur Sumrall learned the technique in mid 1982.Rhoda Narins also visited Paris in 1982 and received instruction by Illouz, Fournier, and Fischer. She learned the wet technique, and she began performing small procedures after returning from Paris with instruments and a suction aspiration machine. Interest in the field also came from plastic surgeons. The American Society of Plastic and Recon structive Surgery sent a task force to Paris in 1982 to investigate the technique. They were interested in the potential and learned the technique from Fournier and Illouz as well. Americans Julius Newman and his associate Richard Dolsky learned the technique and taught the first American course in liposuction in Philadelphia in 1982. The first live surgery workshop was held in 1983 under the American Society of Cosmetic Surgeons and the American Society of Liposuction Surgery.

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