Luana Andrade: liposuction is safe, but has risks – 11/09/2023 – Balance

The death of influencer and dancer Luana Andrade, 29, on Tuesday (7), after liposuction, reignited discussions about the risks of surgically removing body fat.

According to experts, this is a low-risk intervention, but it requires a patient in good health, complete pre-operative exams, as well as professionals and a hospital environment prepared to deal with complications. Limits are also important, with maximum volumes extracting 5% to 7% of body fat.

The Brazilian Society of Plastic Surgery (SBCP) estimates that 2 million people will have undergone the procedure in 2023 and the procedure is the most sought after aesthetic surgical intervention in the country.

In the case of the stage assistant on SBT’s Domingo Legal program, the cause of death declared by Hospital São Luiz, where the procedure was carried out with an external anesthesia team, was massive pulmonary embolism.

Data from the Regional Council of Medicine of the State of São Paulo (Cremesp) indicate that plastic surgeries were among the main complaints made to the entity, occupying, in 2022, 9th place in the ranking of topics addressed by investigations to investigate complaints. The top 10 also includes items such as “malpractice, negligence and recklessness” (3rd) and operating/hospital conditions (4th).

For Cremesp, the table highlights the need to choose responsible professionals carefully. In a note, he highlighted that “any and all aesthetic procedures are subject to complications, regardless of their level of complexity” and that it is “the doctor’s duty to inform the patient about all the benefits and risks arising from a given procedure”.

For Wendell Uguetto, plastic surgeon at SBCP and Albert Einstein Hospital, the dancer’s case is representative of complications that may be associated with the way the procedure is performed.

“Liposuction, like any other type of aesthetic plastic surgery, is considered a low-risk surgery because the patient, when undergoing it, is normally young, with little illness and is undergoing the procedure electively, it is not an emergency.” In this scenario, says the doctor, if the preoperative period is carried out carefully, with well-done exams and adequate anesthetic and cardiological evaluations, the risk is minimal.

“We see that every year there are one to two deaths due to liposuction in the media. What happens is that due to the very high volume of this procedure in Brazil, it will fall into the complication statistics”, he states. The main problems that may arise are linked to inflammation in the body.

He says that lipo has a risk that does not exist in other surgeries, which is perforation. “It can perforate the organ, causes a greater inflammatory reaction and has a higher incidence of deep vein thrombosis, which is that clot that ends in the leg and can fall into the large circulation and go to the lung, causing pulmonary thromboembolism.”

Some of the precautions during surgery include the use of elastic stockings, the use of an intermittent lower limb compression machine — a massage device that simulates walking —, care with the positioning of the lower limbs, keeping patients warm and the use of coagulants in the postoperative period.

Ricardo Cavalcanti, head of the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Division at UNIRIO, states that liposuction is for localized fat and should not be suggested as a weight loss surgery. He says that lipo is contraindicated in cases of obesity. “Many patients hide their health condition and where they are going to do it,” he says.

The surgeon reiterates the need for a suitable environment for the operation and states that it should not be carried out in offices.

Diovane Ruaro, president of the Brazilian College of Plastic Surgery (CBCP), states that the presence of an anesthesiologist monitoring the patient throughout the procedure minimizes the risk of complications, which may include allergies to medications.