One of the questions that I'm commonly asked is the difference between waterjet liposuction (WAL) and the other forms of liposuction, smart (laser) lipo and VASER in particular. Over the last year, I have had the opportunity to treat patients who have had both forms of liposuction prior to seeing me. For VASER, it is normally for other areas (they found VASER too painful to recover from). For smart lipo, revisions were the more common procedure.
Usually, the patients who have undergone smart lipo had small areas treated previously, and either had inadequate results or irregularities that needed smoothening out. It is uncommon to find smart lipo being used for large area liposuction, hence I have not had a good basis for comparing waterjet-plus with it.
I recently treated a gentleman who had smart lipo of his entire abdomen a few years ago. He went to one of the most famous Plastic Surgeons in London's Harley Street. He reports that the procedure was done under local anaesthesia only. The entire abdomen (including flanks was treated). Pain was minimal after the surgery. The fat felt jelly-like subsequently for a period of time. Then nothing... He saw no difference whatsoever. This is a gentleman who should have reasonable results and realistic expectations.
He came to me about a month ago after his wife found me online. We corresponded for a number of weeks before he flew into Singapore. He was the perfect patient intra-operatively. We removed a significant volume of fat from the areas treated with smart lipo previously. He saw the difference immediately and was discharged from follow-up earlier this week, delighted with the results.
The point of greatest interest to me was the recovery process between the 2 procedures. Both are touted as having the least downtime, least pain. Previously, I was comparing apples with pears because of volume differences. Finally, this was an almost fair comparison. Certainly I still have the greater disadvantage as revisions do tend to be technically more difficult and recovery is often more uncomfortable too.
Anyway, this gentleman bounced in the next day, none the worse for wear. He said it was pretty painful after the operation (later the same day), but by the next morning, the pain was very mild. Compared to smart lipo, it was more painful immediately after WAL, but both were equivalent by the next day. He was not too bothered at all by the discomfort, far happier to see the fat gone (this was obvious even with the post-op swelling).
I discharged him some 3 weeks after the procedure. The swelling was virtually gone. No bruising remained. The skin felt a little numb and strange (normal after lipo), but had retracted very nicely. Best of all, the new shape was pretty obvious. Further reductions are likely to occur over the next month, but he's already very happy with what he sees.
