Before undertaking any procedures for body contouring, one should be familiar with the terms associated with body contouring. The following is a comprehensive glossary of body-contouring terms that will help you understand everything from Adipocytes to Xylocaine.
Adipocytes: Fat cells.
Adipose tissue: Fat.
Cannula, SAL: A hollow tube typically with one or more openings near the tip used for suction-assisted lipoplasty.
Dermis: Skin.
Dimpling: A condition marked by the formation of dimples; can be either natural or artificial.
Epinephrine/ Adrenaline: A potential stimulant (sympathomimetic) that is the principal blood-pressure-raising hormone. It is used as a heart stimulant, a vasoconstrictor, which narrows veins to control hemorrhages of the skin, and as a muscle relaxant for bronchial asthma.
Fat Suction: Use of suction to remove liquefied fat, usually through a cannula.
Gynecomastia: Abnormally large mammary glands in males, which can occur during normal adolescence or later in life as weight and hormone levels fluctuate.
Hematoma: A mass of blood that is typically confined within an organ, tissue, space, or potential space; may result from a broken blood vessel.
Infection: State or condition in which the body is invaded by a pathogenic agent that can multiply and result in injury.
Lipectomy: The surgical removal of fatty tissues.
Lidocaine: A local anesthetic equivalent to xylocaine.
Lipolysis: Splitting or chemical decomposition of fat.
Lipolytic: Relating to or causing lipolysis.
Lipoplasty: The surgical removal and/or displacement of fatty or lipid substance.
Liposuction: A method of removing unwanted subcutaneous fat using a hollow cannula and vacuum suction combined with mechanical avulsion to remove adipose cells.
Pulmonary Fat Emboli: A globule of fat obstructing a blood vessel which would require careful monitoring by a physician.
Seroma: A mass caused by the accumulation of serum fluid within a tissue or organ.
Skin Necrosis: The death of one or more skin cells or portion of an organ. Often results in irreversible damage.
Subcutaneous Fat: Fatty tissue located beneath the subdermal fat layer.
Subdermal Fat: Fatty tissue located beneath the dermis.
Suction-Assisted Lipoplasty (SAL): The equivalent to liposuction, which is a method of removing unwanted subcutaneous fat using a hollow cannula and vacuum suction combined with mechanical avulsion to remove adipose cells.
Tumescent Technique: The injection of very large volumes of dilute lidocaine with epinephrine into the subcutaneous fat so that the tissues become swollen and firm.
Ultrasound-Assisted Lipoplasty (UAL): The use of ultrasonic waves to emulsify fat, combined with low level suction to remove emulsion.
Wet Technique: Solution infiltrated into the subcutaneous tissue prior to liposuction. Like the tumescent technique, this usually contains epinephrine and lidocaine. However, the ratio of infiltrate to aspirate differs from the tumescent technique.
Xylocaine: A local anesthetic equivalent to lidocaine.