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The traditional technique of Liposuction and traditional technology of the same are two different things. Technique signifies the particular way of carrying out a particular task, while technology exemplifies the mechanism and materials used to perform it.

While the traditional technique is still the basic module of this body contouring surgery new advancements of technologies have proved to push the limitations of older ones. So when it is popularly said that how new age technologies have pushed the limitations of “traditional liposuction” and at the same time when it is popularly mentioned that how efficient the “traditional liposuction” is against all other “techniques” the unknown seeker is exposed to a lot of confusion.

Technique

Liposuction technique might refer to the mixology of the anaesthetic fluid and the medium of suction by way of the cannula used to break down the fat layers. There are 3 basic combinations of anaesthetics that are in use in the recent time for this surgery. After injecting the anaesthetics once the treatable area is numb and well prepared to tolerate the surgery, the surgeon makes little 1mm holes to the area and inserts a hollow sleek stainless steel cannula into the subcutaneous layer affected with localised fat. The cannula is used to break up the localised fat in the skin layers and once the fat is broken down, it is suctioned via a tube attached with the cannula attached with an aspirator.

Tumescent liposuction is the traditional technique that refers to the usage of anaesthetics before performing the surgery. The tumescent technique was the modern technique 30 years ago that has now become the traditional technique that ruled out the usage of general anaesthetics to perform the surgery. Instead a larger number of local anaesthetics, adrenalin and tumescent drugs is injected to the treatable area intravenously which numbs expands and stiffen the area and shrinks the surrounding blood vessels and collagen which results in much less blood loss.

This technique was introduced in the mid 1980’s when liposuction being performed over general anaesthetics used to be a struggling cosmetic procedure tried by very brave or desperate people who were often prone to a lot of invasiveness and even deterred results.

The general anaesthetic usage is referred now as the dry technique, which only put the patient to sleep during the surgery and nothing else. But when the patient would wake up and once the affects of the general anaesthetics would wear off, the patient would experience great pain, discomfort and bruising, because the general anaesthetics didn’t have the properties to prevent this and moreover there were a lot of blood loss and tissue damage.

The components of the tumescent technique liposuction prevent blood loss and invasiveness up to a good extent and hence are widely chosen by plastic surgeons worldwide as the most efficient.

However, since the usage of high amount of anaesthetics used in the tumescent technique there was an issue of a raising toxicity in the patient’s body so by the 1990s the super wet technique was introduced. The super wet technique uses a lesser amount of local anaesthetics mixed with saline solution for the same effect. It works, but the blood loss is still lesser with the tumescent technique. Super wet technique is used when larger amount of fat is to be extracted.

Surgeons consider the blood loss more controllable than exposing the patient to toxicity from a larger amount of the tumescent fluid. But when going for normal amount of fat removal traditional tumescent technique is the chosen one.

Technology

When the surgeon would say Traditional tumescent liposuction it can be regarded that he means suction assisted liposuction using the tumescent anaesthetic and traditional technology where only the hollow cannula is inserted into the fat layers and the surgeon uses to manually break up the fat walls to make way for suction. This was in the 1980s which were quite efficient to some extent.

But when later in the 1990s ultrasonic Vaser liposuction was introduced, surgeons found its advancements as effective as ever. The Vaser lipo procedure is all the same to look at as traditional technique given only that it involves an additional step wherein after injecting the chosen anaesthetic fluid, ultrasonic probes are vibrated through the cannula inside the fatty layers which result in melting the fat down into a buttery liquid which made the suction really smooth and completive.

Given the doubt clearance, it is to be noted that be it any procedure, technique and technology, in the end of it all it’s the surgeon and the talent of his hands that would be responsible for the success of the procedure. So it is the most important part when choosing your surgeon, do avid research and ensure that you are with the right institution at every step of the procedure.