New Aesthetic Procedure Called Slurry Injections For Targeting Fat, The Next Big Wave In Aesthetic and Beauty Clinics For 2020
Source: Thailand Medical News Jan 16, 2020 4 years, 3 months, 1 week, 1 day, 20 hours, 47 minutes ago
The Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) laboratory that invented cryolipolisis or "Coolsculpting," a popular non-surgical method for
reducing fat under the skin, is developing a new form of the technology that can selectively
reduce fat almost anywhere in the body using a safe,
injectable ice solution or "
slurry."
The new technology, not yet approved for use in humans, is designed for
removal of fat in the abdomen or other parts of the body, virtually anywhere that can be reached with a hypodermic needle.
Fat is a normal part of our bodies, but in excess or with some diseases can be life-threatening.
The recently developed technique is described in a paper published online ahead of print in the journal
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. As one of the reviewers of the paper said, "this treatment has the potential to become one of the most performed
aesthetic procedures in plastic surgery practice."
Lead author Dr Lilit Garibyan, MD, Ph.D., investigator in the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at MGH and the Department of
Dermatology at Harvard Medical School told
Thailand Medical News, "The appeal of this technique is that it's easy and convenient to do. With Coolsculpting, which is a topical cooling technique, the patient has to sit there for almost an hour for enough heat to diffuse from the fat underneath the skin. With this new technique the doctor can do a simple
injection that takes just less than a minute, the patient can go home, and then the
fat gradually disappears."
Currently, cryolipolysis is currently the leading non-invasive
fat removal technology because of its minor side effects and non-invasive nature. The Coolsculpting method is limited, however, by the amount of
fat that can be removed per treatment, and is not practical for reaching more deeply seated
fat surrounding organs or other body structures.
The team’s innovative spin on the technique involves the use of an
injectable ice "
slurry," a sterile solution of normal saline and glycerol (a common food ingredient) containing approximately 20% to 40% small ice particles, similar in texture to slush. The solution can be
injected directly into
fat deposits, causing the
fat cells (adipocytes) to crystallize and die and
fat deposits to shrink. The killed adipocytes are gradually eliminated by the body over a period of weeks. "One of the cool things about this is how the
injected slurry causes selective effects on
fat,<
/strong>" said Rox Anderson, MD, a co-author and leader of the Wellman Center. "Even if the slurry is injected into other tissue such as muscle, there is no significant injury."
From the research findings, injection of the ice solution into pigs resulted in a 55% reduction in fat thickness compared to that of pigs injected with the same but melted ice solution. There was no damage to skin or muscle at the injection site, and no systemic side effects or abnormalities seen.
The new method is unlike topical cooling, slurry injection can target and remove fat tissue at essentially any depth and any site that can be accessed by a needle or catheter. Injection of physiological ice slurry could be a transformative method for nonsurgical body contouring.
The new aesthetic procedure is expected to pass necessary regulatory approvals by the first quarter of 2020.
Reference : Lilit Garibyan et al, Subcutaneous Fat Reduction with Injected Ice Slurry, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (2020). DOI: 10.1097/PRS.0000000000006658
