What is it about?

Removing the fat and fibrous tissue caused by lipedema significantly improves many problems caused by lipedema. Using Lymph Sparing Liposuction techniques and manual extraction of fibrous tissue women with lipedema experienced improvement in pain and swelling in their legs, improved mobility such as improved ability to climb the stairs, improved knee function and knee alignment, and improved quality of life in multiple health domains.

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Why is it important?

-This is the first paper to document knee joint improvement and gait improvement from LRS. -This is the first paper correlating patient-reported outcomes with objective physical measurement improvements. -This paper validates lipedema surgery as an important and helpful treatment for women with Lipedema. This paper should help prove the value of lipedema surgery to medical insurance carriers and ensure proper coverage for this surgery. -This is the first paper to use the same outcome measurements used in Orthopedic literature and show comparable or better improvements in mobility, quality of life measurements, and knee flexion than a Total Knee Replacement. -This is the first LRS/Lipedema Surgery Outcomes paper from the US. -This is the first paper to document knee joint improvement and gait improvement from LRS. -This is the first paper correlating patient-reported outcomes with objective physical measurement improvements. -This is the first paper to use the same outcome measurements used in Orthopedic literature and show comparable or better improvements in mobility, quality of life measurements, and knee flexion than a Total Knee Replacement. -This is the first paper to show improvement in mobility measurements that correlate with future disability and life expectancy.

Perspectives

The study design builds on a previous study using only nonsurgical treatment without surgery. A recent by the authors used the same medical grade compression, lymphedema/lipedema therapy (MLD), and low carbohydrate diet as we used in this study, which almost served as a kind of control. The previous study did not show the improvement in physical function and mobility, gait, knee mechanics, or significant increase in measures of quality of life that we showed with LRS (Effect of pneumatic compression device and stocking use on symptoms and quality of life in women with lipedema: A proof-in-principle randomized trial - PubMed (nih.gov))

Dr Thomas Wright MD
Laser Liposuction and Vein Center

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Lipedema Reduction Surgery Improves Pain, Mobility, Physical Function, and Quality of Life: Case Series Report, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open, November 2023, Wolters Kluwer Health,
DOI: 10.1097/gox.0000000000005436.
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