Laser Assisted Liposuction: Cholesterol Reduction?

There are a number of laser assisted liposuction machines on the market. None of them have demonstrated any clear advantage over traditional liposuction, although the claim is that they produce more skin tightening than traditional liposuction. When one researcher proposed looking at this scientifically, the laser company he was working with refused to let him proceed.
Now a company studying another low level laser liposuction device has seen reduction in serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels two weeks after treatment with their device (LipoLaser). In a group of 19 patients the mean cholesterol level fell by 19 mg/dL, with the mean LDL (bad) cholesterol reduction of 14 mg/dL.

It's difficult to know what to make of these findings. The study was nonblinded, noncontrolled and nonrandomized. All the other laser assisted liposuction devices had to perform similar studies and none reported a similar effect. The LipoLaser used a wavelength of 635-nm, a red light. This is a different wavelength from those used by the other laser assisted liposuction devices on the market. Conceivably the LipoLaser results may be due to this different wavelength, or they may just be a statistical aberration that will disappear as larger numbers of patients are studied. Furthermore, even if these results are due to the procedure, these results were seen at two weeks and it seems very unlikely that the results from a single procedure, involving a small percentage of the total body fat, will produce long lasting results. While it is conceivable that people may one day stand in a light box to lower their blood lipids, it's not yet time to throw away your cholesterol lowering medication.

Gerald N. Bock MD
California Skin & Laser Center
Stockton & Lodi, CA

Comments

[dermatologist pomona]

how effective the laser liposuction device? i want to try this because in my case i really need to undergo in this kind of procedure i am overweight cant breath coz of the cholesterol.

sphin

Laser assisted liposuction is slower and less effective than traditiional liposuction. Its presumed benefit is skin tightening, but this has never been proven.