Tumescent Liposuction - An Overview

Adam Nadelson, MD, practices as a fellowship-trained cosmetic surgeon in New York City. To help patients look and feel more youthful, Adam Nadelson, MD, performs a variety of face and body procedures including tumescent liposuction.

First introduced in the United States in the early 1980s, tumescent liposuction has become the standard of practice worldwide. Statistically safer, it requires less postsurgical recovery time, and causes less pain to the patient as compared to traditional liposuction.

With tumescent liposuction, the surgeon injects a large amount of diluted local anesthetic mixed with a medication that shrinks blood vessels. The constricted vessels minimize the amount of bleeding involved in the procedure, while the local anesthetic allows the patient to undergo the procedure fully awake but pain-free.

After the injection, the surgical site becomes swollen and firm, known as tumescence in medical terms. The surgeon then introduces a cannula to break apart and extract the fat cells. Thanks to the vasoconstriction, minimal bruising occurs with tumescent liposuction, and many people can return to regular activity later the same day.