Stubborn pockets of fat can remain even with regular exercise and a balanced diet. If certain areas seem out of proportion with the rest of your body, liposuction may help refine their shape.
At his San Antonio, TX, practice, board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Eric S. Schaffer offers liposuction tailored to your anatomy and goals. With more than 30 years of experience, he can help you understand where fat removal may make a difference and what outcome is realistic for you.
What Is Liposuction?
Liposuction is a surgical body contouring procedure that uses suction to remove localized fat beneath the skin. It can improve the proportions of areas that have not changed as much as you would like with diet and exercise.
The goal is to create a balanced shape rather than remove as much fat as possible. Leaving an appropriate layer of tissue beneath the skin helps create a smooth contour. The amount removed depends on your anatomy, the treatment areas, and safety considerations.
Liposuction treats subcutaneous fat, which lies between the skin and muscle. It does not remove the deeper visceral fat surrounding your internal organs. It also does not directly tighten loose skin, repair separated abdominal muscles, or reliably eliminate cellulite. Understanding these distinctions helps you choose a procedure that addresses the source of your concern.
Liposuction Treatment Areas
Liposuction can address localized fat deposits in several areas, including:
- Abdomen
- Ankles
- Arms
- Back
- Buttocks
- Calves
- Chest
- Face, including selected areas beneath the chin
- Hips
- Thighs
Not every area is appropriate for every person. Dr. Schaffer assesses the amount and distribution of fat, skin quality, and nearby structures before recommending treatment.
Planning may involve looking at adjacent areas together. For example, changes to the abdomen can affect how the waist and hips appear in relation to it. Considering these transitions helps establish a proportionate plan rather than treating each bulge in isolation.
You can discuss which areas bother you most and whether treating one area or several would better match your goals. Liposuction for men is also available.
Who is an Ideal Candidate for Liposuction?
Liposuction is intended for body contouring rather than significant weight loss. You may be a candidate if you have localized fat deposits, are near a sustainable goal weight, and have maintained that weight for some time.
Good skin elasticity is another important consideration. Skin with sufficient elasticity can adapt more closely to the underlying contour after fat removal. If your skin is already loose or hanging, removing fat alone may leave that looseness more apparent. In that situation, a procedure that removes excess skin may be more suitable.
During your consultation, Dr. Schaffer reviews your medical history, medications, supplements, prior operations, and smoking or nicotine use. Health conditions that affect healing or increase surgical risk may influence whether treatment is appropriate or require evaluation before scheduling.
Your expectations also matter. You should be comfortable with the possibility of small residual differences between sides and understand that surgery cannot guarantee a specific clothing size or an entirely smooth surface.
If you are still losing weight or expect a substantial weight change, discuss timing before proceeding. Planning around a stable baseline makes it easier to assess the areas you want to change.
The Liposuction Procedure
Dr. Schaffer plans your liposuction around the location of the fat deposits, your skin, and the amount of contouring involved. Before surgery, you will discuss the treatment areas, anticipated incision locations, anesthesia, and postoperative care. Markings help guide the planned changes.
Small incisions provide access for a thin, hollow tube called a cannula. When possible, incision placement considers natural creases and areas concealed by clothing. Through these openings, Dr. Schaffer moves the cannula through the fat layer to loosen deposits and remove them with suction.
Tumescent liposuction uses a solution containing saline, lidocaine, and epinephrine within the treatment area. The saline helps expand the tissue, lidocaine provides local anesthesia, and epinephrine narrows blood vessels to help limit bleeding. Tumescent preparation can be part of a suction-based liposuction procedure rather than an entirely separate method of fat removal.
Contouring involves assessing how much fat to remove and how the treated area blends with the surrounding body. More removal does not automatically produce a better result. Your plan should account for the tissue that remains and the skin’s ability to adapt.
Afterward, you receive instructions specific to your procedure, including incision care, garment use, activity, and follow-up appointments. If you are considering more than one treatment area, ask how that affects the extent of surgery and your recovery arrangements.
Liposuction Before & After Photos
Before
After
Before
After
Liposuction Results
Your new contours become easier to see as swelling and bruising fade. Early fullness or firmness can make it hard to judge the outcome right away.
The most noticeable change may be in your proportions or how your clothes fit, rather than a large change on the scale. The result also depends on your starting shape and skin quality. Liposuction cannot create the same outcome for two people with different anatomy.
Small incisions leave scars, although their appearance generally changes as they mature. Following incision-care instructions and discussing scar concerns during follow-up can help you understand what to expect.
Removed fat cells are permanently removed, but remaining cells can enlarge with weight gain. Aging and changes in skin firmness can also affect your contours. Maintaining a stable weight helps preserve the improvement.
Reviewing before-and-after photographs can support your consultation discussion. Look for similar treatment areas and starting concerns, but remember that individual results vary.
"I can’t thank Dr. Schaffer and his staff enough for giving me my self confidence once again. Dr. Schaffer completed a tummy tuck and lipo around my waistline needed after having three kids. He and his staff are very professional and personable. His work is top notch and I couldn’t be more thrilled with the results."
Frequently Asked Questions
There is a misconception about liposuction that the procedure is a weight-loss procedure. It is not. Liposuction is a body contouring procedure. Liposuction is not a panacea for weight loss. In fact, removing too much fat in a single surgical session is dangerous.
Liposuction is intended as a tool to remove stubborn pockets of fat that accumulate in areas such as the lower abdomen, thighs and love handles that are particularly resistant to changes the person makes in diet or exercise. Liposuction removes these pockets of fat and sculpts the area. Once the skin tightens down, the area is slimmer and more contoured.
Dr. Schaffer typically wants his patients to be within 10 percent of their ideal weight before coming in for these procedures.
These are permanent results. The fat Dr. Schaffer suctions away is gone for good. You will enjoy your slimmer contour for the rest of your life. If you work to stay at a healthy weight and make regular exercise a part of your life, you’ll enjoy the results of your liposuction for the duration.
After your liposuction procedure, Dr. Schaffer will develop a customized plan to ensure that you recover quickly and achieve the results that you want. Patients should follow this plan as closely as possible as it can enhance the speed and final outcome of the procedure. Our staff will give you any necessary medication and materials to help you through the recovery process.
Patients typically experience mild swelling, bruising and discomfort in the treatment areas. Dr. Schaffer recommends compression garments or elastic bandages to help reduce these symptoms. Many patients can return to work and other regular activities shortly after surgery but should avoid exercise and other strenuous activities for a few weeks.
Modern tumescent liposuction with Dr. Schaffer is a far cry from the original liposuction procedures performed in the 1980s. In those procedures, the patient had to be under general anesthesia and the bruising and discomfort created were extreme.
Not today. Dr. Schaffer performs liposuction with the patient under only general anesthesia with sedation. Plus, the tumescent solution — a mixture of saline solution, epinephrine, and Lidocaine — works to swell the area (saline) to make it easier to work, constricts the fat cells and blood vessels (epinephrine) for less bleeding and bruising and easier separation of the fat cells, and provides local anesthetic (Lidocaine). This makes today’s liposuction with moderate discomfort during recovery.
Depending upon where Dr. Schaffer has performed your liposuction, you may be able to return to work or your other normal activities in about 7 days.
While Dr. Schaffer does make prescription pain medication available, most patients need them for the first several days then switch to over-the-counter options.
Some of our patients have misperceptions of the differences between liposuction and a tummy tuck. The goals of these two popular abdominal procedures are the same — a tighter, slimmer, contoured abdomen — but the target is different. For abdominal liposuction, Dr. Schaffer looks to remove pockets of fat in the area that are impervious to exercise or diet. This isn’t widespread fat, but areas where fat has accumulated. These procedures have nothing to do with the skin; they address only the underlying fat.
A tummy tuck is all about the loose, sagging skin that is a result of the localized weight gain and loss of pregnancy and childbirth or from the person gaining and then losing a good deal of weight. In these situations, the skin and underlying support tissues have been stretched to such a degree that they cannot tighten back down to their former degree of tightness. In many cases, the extended stomach has actually caused the muscles in the center of the stomach to separate. These muscles cannot return to the center to control the area without surgery. A tummy tuck aims to remove this loose skin, usually relocating the navel upwards. In most of his tummy tuck procedures Dr. Schaffer may also include some limited liposuction to remove isolated pockets of fat, but the main goal is to remove loose, sagging skin and to bring separated muscles back to the center of the stomach.
Dr. Schaffer performs mommy makeovers, where he combines liposuction with a tummy tuck and breast lift, so there is precedent for combining surgeries should you feel the need. A mommy makeover is intended to address the areas of the body most impacted by the process of pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding, although that isn’t a necessary criterion. So, if your breasts have flattened and have loose sagging skin, Dr. Schaffer could perform a breast lift along with your liposuction. This could include augmentation with implants, as it is an easy extension of a breast lift to insert implants through the axillary incisions.
Dr. Schaffer could also use the fat harvested in liposuction to augment your buttocks in a Brazilian butt lift if you want a rounder backside.
If you are interested in combining surgical procedures into a single session, discuss this with Dr. Schaffer during your consultation. He can then share with you if he feels a combination of procedures would work for you.
Liposuction involves the typical risks involved with surgery, such as bleeding, infection, and reaction to the anesthetic, but these are rare with modern liposuction. These are very satisfying procedures with low risk thanks to Dr. Schaffer’s board-certified training, expertise, and experience. That’s why every year liposuction is one of the top three most popular cosmetic surgeries in the United States.
Still, this is surgery, although it is minimally invasive, and there is the potential for complications. Complications specific to liposuction are:
- Contour irregularities — The treated area can appear bumpy or wavy. If the patient has inelastic skin, this is more prevalent.
- Numbness — Any numbness in the area is usually temporary, but it can endure.
- Fluid accumulation — Temporary pockets of fluid (called seromas) can form. These may need to be drained.
Our patients from San Antonio and the surrounding areas love their results after Dr Schaffer has removed stubborn pockets of fat with liposuction.
Alternative/Complementary Procedures
If your main concern involves loose skin rather than localized fat, another procedure may be more appropriate. A tummy tuck removes excess abdominal skin and may include repair of separated abdominal muscles. An arm lift or back lift addresses excess skin in those areas.
Depending on your anatomy and goals, you may have skin-removal surgery alone or combined with liposuction. Dr. Schaffer can explain what each option addresses, incision placement, and recovery so you can compare the choices that matter to you.
Why Choose Dr. Schaffer for Liposuction?
Dr. Eric S. Schaffer is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. His training includes general surgery at Harvard Medical School and plastic surgery at Yale University.
With more than 30 years in practice, he brings experience in both fat removal and excess-skin procedures. Your consultation allows time to discuss your priorities, ask questions, and review the reasoning behind the recommended plan. That assessment helps align the procedure with your anatomy and expectations.
Schedule a Consultation
To explore liposuction in San Antonio, TX, contact our office to schedule a consultation. You can discuss the areas you would like to refine and learn whether liposuction or another body contouring procedure fits your goals. Call 210-227-3223.