- How did ancient Romans do fat removal?
- Don’t try it at home!
Liposuction, also referred to as lipoplasty, suction lipectomy, and liposculpture is a cosmetic surgery procedure that’s become increasingly popular over the last couple of decades. So when was it actually developed, and what were the circumstances surrounding it?
Actually the concept of fat removal from the the body by way of an immediate treatment that involves no change of diet dates back to ancient Rome. You see, it was back then that wealthy Romans would pay top dollar for alligator dung skin treatments for melting away fat from various parts of their bodies.
So did it work? The chances of that are highly unlikely, but just the same, over the centuries the search has gone on for some type of substance, or treatments that can be applied to the body to faciliate fat removal in discreet areas. Something that smells better than crocodile poop.
Finally in the 1920s a French surgeon by the name of Charles Dujarier (du-ha-yay) began experimenting with more intrusive techniques that involved surgically removing fat, and while details are hard to come by, it is assumed that he was using hollow tubes to remove it. These were the seeds of liposculpture and liposuction
Dr. Dujarier had two things stacked against him though. Those were that penicillin was still three decades away from being discovered, and the technology for a powerful vacuum also had yet to be developed as well. So while he did experience certain levels of success, he definitely did have his fair share failures that were catastrophic.
Just the same, while the high level of risk of dying from severe infection, or losing an arm or a leg to gangrene did in time leave him pretty much without patients, the medical community did take notice of his successes. After all, he had successfully removed fat from peoples bodies, and that was a big deal. A first.
It took the development of penicillin in the mid 1940s to really give the green light to elective cosmetic surgery, so it was around that time that certain doctors began once again dabbling in it. Even so, you have to keep in mind that it takes about a decade for a drug, or medical procedure to be approved by the FDA.
So a lot of the earlier work around that time in liposculpture fat removal techniques that led to liposuction took place in Europe, and it was around the early 1960s that medical researchers began to make public their findings. What was found was that it was a messy affair that involved a lot of bleeding and some level of risk, but it could be done semi-predictably.
Now the word semi-predictably is key here because remember that it is a cosmetic procedure which means that you’re supposed to look good after you heal, and this is where they had some issues. You see, it wasn’t until 1982 that a French surgeon by the name of Dr. Yves Gerard Illouz (looz) began using suction which was the beginning of liposuction.
Now that was a big game changer because now the fat could be removed with long metal tubes without leaving any loose fat “debris” inside the incision and what this also meant was that far more predictable results could be achieved with dull instruments that did less cutting damage.
Tags: fat removal, lipoplasty, liposculpture, liposuction, suction lipectomy