Microcannular liposuction in tumescent anesthesia in lipedema patients: an analysis of 519 liposuctions

This is a retrospective analysis of all lipedema patients treated by tumescent liposuction at our department in the years 2007-2021: We performed 519 liposuctions in 178 patients with a mean age of 45 +/- 15.5 years. By the stage of lipedema the mean age increased significantly, what underlines the concept of lipedema as a chronic progressive disorder. Three-thirds of patients reported at least one comorbidity. The most common were arterial hypertension (32.58%), obesity ( 24.16%), and hypothyroidism (20.79%). We removed a mean lipoaspirate volume of 4905 +/- 2800mL. A major target for treatment is pain reduction. All patients reported at least a 50% pain reduction after liposuction, while 96 achieved a pain reduction = 90%. The pre-operative pain intensity (p= 0.000) and the lipedema stage (p= 0.032) exerted a significant impact on absolute pain reduction. There was no association of pain reduction to volume loss. The post-operative rate of adverse events was 2.89%. Liposuction in tumescent anesthesia is an effective and safe method to reduce both pain and volume in patients with lipedema.