New Way to Blast Fat Without Surgery Looks Promising
Procedure that uses ultrasound to break down fat could be OK'd in United States.
Jan. 5, 2009 — -- Karen Kinnear has always liked her body, but like many women she had that one problem area that just wouldn't go away, even with a diet and exercise.
"I had the, as they call it, saddlebags. And I was not happy with how it looked," she said.
Kinnear felt liposuction was too invasive, but then she heard about UltraShape, a device that claims to reduce fat with ultrasound.
"It actually breaks down the fat cell and gets rid of the unwanted fat much like liposuction does, except it does it non-invasively, meaning there's no cutting, there's no anesthesia, there's no downtime, there's no recovery," said Dr. Ari Benchetrit, a plastic surgeon in Montreal who has used UltraShape.
It sounds too good to be true, but international studies show that UltraShape reduces fat thickness in common problem areas in just three sessions, and it doesn't harm surrounding skin, blood vessels, nerves or other tissue.
"The clinical trials as well as our own experience has demonstrated an average loss of four to six centimeters in circumference after a three treatment cycle. So that's about two to three inches after the three treatments which is quite considerable," Benchetrit said.
Patients spend a half hour under the UltraShape machine, and the sound waves converge to hit the fat cells under the skin and make them vibrate at a very high speed, causing them to be destroyed. Experts say the fat is then carried to the liver, where it is removed from your body safely. But the procedure is not for everyone.
"This is not a weight loss procedure. This is not for somebody who really needs to lose a lot of weight," Benchetrit said.
In addition, patients need to continue to stay fit and eat right; if not, those problem areas may return. UltraShape is in phase three clinical trials in the United States and doctors here say it could be approved in a few years.
"Patients always obviously want to look and feel better, but if they can do it non-surgically, that's gonna have a real mass appeal," said Dr. Jeffrey M. Kenkel, a plastic surgeon at Southwestern Medical Center.
