Research liposuction equipment

With the hourglass figure finally replacing waif-like emaciation, plastic surgeons know that they need to do their liposuction equipment research if they plan on fat grafting. Twiggy, Kate Moss-style thinness persisted for nearly 50 years, and we’re betting on a long run for voluptuousness, too.

The liposculpture trend has just begun. The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS), documents the jump in demand for fat grafting procedures in just 4 years:

• Fat transfer buttock augmentation (fat and prosthetics) has almost doubled, seeing a rise of 90.3%. Of the 35,000 total procedures, 95%, or 33,250, were fat transfer procedures rather than prosthetic implants.
• Fat transfer breast augmentation rose 37.3% total for nearly 25,000 procedures.

Optimal autologous fat transfer outcomes depend on precision surgical instruments that preserve maximum fat viability. Surgeons who research liposuction equipment are looking for ease of use, ideal outcomes, and precisely sculptured results.

The good news is that fat viability has come a long way from 1987 when the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons concluded that only 30% of injected fat could be expected to survive for one year. By the year 2000, studies were finding a fat survival rate of around 50 to 90 percent, but outcomes varied dramatically. In 2020, our study using the infiltration pump Liposat® Pro plus with the vibrating handpiece Vibrasat® Pro and the Vacusat® power demonstrated that a consistently 92% of gained fat cells were viable, in-vitro.  The goal of our cell biology laboratory’s simulated lipofilling process was to prove how optimal cell protecting and stressless treatment can be performed and what factors play a role when it comes to primary fat cells.

Surgeons looking to add fat transfer to breast and buttocks augmentations today are in debt to the early-adopting surgeons who tested fat grafting procedures and equipment. They’ve posted their findings in scientific journals, their blogs, and even YouTube. When researching liposuction and infiltration equipment, look into your brand, time horizon, and the following resources.

Know your plastic surgery practice brand

Plastic surgery styles vary from practice to practice and each serves different markets. Some surgeons come from an art background and consider themselves sculptors. Meanwhile, the more practical, functional type may enjoy working with women after childbirth who just want to slim down and tighten up at a reasonable price. Of course, your location weighs into your brand. The Beverly Hills or Boca Raton Florida surgeon can fill his or her waiting room with candidates willing to pay top dollar for the finest bodywork. The Boise or Little Rock surgery practice likely has patients with more modest goals. Your equipment investment should mirror your brand and the needs of your client base.

Moeller has created LipoGuide, an online advisor tool to help you crystalize your brand. It includes questions on how much you prioritize technical sophistication and the latest procedures to gauge which solutions are right for your practice. Do you put more weight on your and your fellow surgeons’ craftsmanship instead? Some surgeons are looking for equipment that maximizes their workflow while others need tools that prevent fatigue. No matter your priority, there’s a solution for every need.

The eight question advisor guide takes less than one minute to complete and costs nothing. While it acts as a helpful  initial orientation, it cannot replace individual guidance from a customer service expert. Your quiz results may surprise you!

Study up on the best liposuction equipment

Once you’re more clear on your practice’s position in the market, you can start researching different liposuction equipment manufacturers and their instruments. As you read the recommendations, keep in mind that surgical tool preference is subjective. One surgeon will consider the most recently released  state-of-the-art tool to be “the best.” It’s likely that this surgeon’s practice positions itself as a high-end facility with celebrity-level results. Another surgeon could find that a handpiece or pump is “the best” because of its ease of use, like automated volume management or simple  visualization of the infiltrated volume. Surgeons who understand their strengths, approach, and market position will take all these individual factors into account when hearing about “the best” tools available to make the optimal decision for their patients.

Now it’s time to  create a spreadsheet listing manufacturers, instrument names, delivery rate, foot switches, applications, and other features to make comparisons easier.

These publications can help get you started:

Plastic Surgery Practice shows a “treatments” dropdown with a “products” tab. There, doctors discuss their experience with instruments and manufacturers. It also has an entire section on recent innovations.

Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery  has a convenient search bar where you can enter “infiltration pumps,” “cannulae,” “handpieces,” and “liposuction” to bring up some helpful results.

The American Society of Plastic Surgery offers several ways of exploring equipment options. It’s easy to add a question to its discussion board and search for specific manufacturers and tools there. Its publications, in addition to Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery mentioned above, include Plastic Surgery News and Breast Reconstruction. 

Once you compile a list of manufacturers and instrument names, researching them on the manufacturers’ sites and even via YouTube provides excellent context. On our Moeller Medical YouTube channel, we’ve included a video introducing viewers to our Liposat® Pro and Liposat® Pro plus. If you search on YouTube, however, you can find many doctors demonstrating our products and those of other manufacturers. Some surgeons have even created training videos on the use of new equipment.

Another place to research liposuction equipment manufacturers is Google news. Consider searching the manufacturer’s name to see if any awards or recent news comes up, along with lawsuits or court cases.

Additional tips for selecting liposuction equipment

• Consult with other surgeons at your practice. Everyone should feel their input has meaning.  You should also take the time to talk to nurses, engineers, distributors, salespeople, and others familiar with the marketplace and the surgery arena.
• Selectively invest in the technology that will serve your most lucrative, popular procedures. That may or may not be autologous fat grafting. Buy the highest grade instruments to perfect the outcomes for your key procedures.
• Work with an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) that specializes in plastic surgery instruments.

Is new liposuction equipment in your future?

Since the 1990s, autologous fat transfer has been filling patients’ breasts and butts as well as  plastic surgeons’ waiting rooms. With negative news about breast implant illness and BIA-ALCL souring women on prosthetic implants, surgeons whose practices depend on breast augmentation are exploring liposuction equipment with the best fat viability rates.

Overall, plastic surgery procedures are set to surge over the next five years. Beyond the demand created by social media and now Zoom, new markets are emerging. People aged 60 and older and even those in emerging countries are investing more and more in aesthetic rejuvenation. If you want to achieve precision results with German engineered liposuction instruments, contact our Albany, New York office at 1-518 407 0203 Ext. 1100 or leave your question or comment on our online form. We look forward to discussing your needs and how our products can help you reach your goals!