Mesotherapy, also known as Lipodissolve, is an increasingly popular minimally invasive procedure to dissolve fat and may provide an alternative to liposuction. But is the procedure safe or effective?
The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) announced on Friday at their annual meeting that they will be conducting a double-blind placebo study to determine the safety and effectiveness of mesotherapy.
Mesoptherapy was developed in the early 1950s and involves injecting different compounds into the skin in an effort to break down fat cells. However, there are no proper regulations or guidelines for this treatment, which may put patients at serious risk.
“We don't know whether it works or not because it is used by a lot of people who inject all kinds of chemicals into the skin,” said Peter B. Fodor, MD, a plastic surgeon in Los Angeles and an associate clinical professor of plastic surgery at UCLA.
“Our committee looked at the literature and we found no uniformity to what is being used, how much is being injected, and where it is being injected, so we could not draw any conclusions,” Fodor said of the ASAPS ad hoc committee formed to further investigate mesotherapy.
ASAPS hopes the new study will provide doctors and patients with more unified protocols and safety standards as well as information about the potential risks and benefits of the mesotherapy treatment.
“Our goal [of the study] is to provide physicians and their patients with the information they need to make good decisions. Currently, we cannot endorse the injection of phosphatidylcholine, sodium deoxycholate, or any drugs, vitamins, plant extracts or hormones into subcutaneous fat as practiced in mesotherapy/Lipodissolve treatments, because we don't have enough clinical data or FDA approval to support their use,” Dr. Mark Jewell, ASAPS president said in a statement.
ASAPS will launch clinical trials at five centers nationwide. “We will do some studies with an exact and rigid protocol so we can compare apples to apples, not apples to oranges,” Fodor said.
The findings of the mesotherapy study are expected to be published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal .