Can The Irregularities And Asymmetries After Liposuction Be Fixed?

Q: I had liposuction surgery of my stomach and waistline four months ago and I think it was botched. My surgeon removed too much on one side of my waistline and left the other side straight. I can still feel that there is fat remaining at the love handle area of the straight side. It is very odd looking in appearance to me. How can there be such a difference between the two sides? There are also dents in different areas across my stomach. Can all of this be fixed and made to look better? I am very upset about the way it looks as I used to have a very smooth and even waistline before even if it was too fat.

A: While I can understand how you feel, calling your result botched is most likely an inaccurate assessment. Liposuction is an art form and not an exact science. Irregularities and asymmetries are not rare from liposuction even in the best of hands. It is a blind procedure done by feel and how it looks from the outside in the face of fluid distention and the patient laying horizontal….distortions that assure some degree of imperfections in most results. There is also the influencing issues of your skin and how well it adapts to the fat removal…a variable not controlled by the surgeon. Your issues can most likely can be improved by some refining liposuction of the bigger love handle and fat grafting into the stomach indentations. Expect improvement but not perfection from any revisional liposuction procedure.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana