Next-Gen Liposuction

Resculpt your body for the price of a good meal

By MICHIKO TOYAMA/Tokyo

Posted Sunday, Dec. 8, 2002; 2.02 p.m. GMT
To São Paulo beauty therapist Debora Ferreira, it sounded like a miracle cure. The way her dermatologist, Patricia Rittes, explained it, Ferreira would be able to get rid of the excess fat on her thighs without exercise or surgery — and for just $85, a fraction of the cost of liposuction. It would take just three or four sessions of injections, a fortnight apart. Ferreira, 28, signed up in Nov. 2000; two years on, she's still delighted with the results. "I never looked good in pants before," she says, "but I do now, and my jeans are an inch tighter!"

Rittes' "miracle cure" might be called the Lipo of 2003, a year that may witness the first human face transplant and, continuing the timeless quest for the perfect human, the birth of the first cloned baby. In 1995, Rittes figured a way to melt away fat by injecting patients with Lipostabil, a drug normally used to lower triglyceride and cholesterol levels. According to Rittes, it contains an enzyme called phosphatidylcholine that dissolves the fat surrounding blood vessels. She claims to have "treated" 1,300 patients and trained doctors from around the world — including the U.S., where Lipostabil has not yet received FDA approval.

As with liposuction, many doctors warn against the procedure. "There isn't enough scientific and clinical data to substantiate the safety or even the effectiveness of Lipostabil as a fat-dissolving treatment," warns Vernon Leroy Young, a spokesman for the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Others swear by it. "We've seen people lose fat around thighs, knees ... I did my love handles and they're gone," says New York cosmetic dermatologist Steven Victor. For plus-size people, those are magic words.

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Nip and Tuck Trade [May 5, 2002] Europe's burgeoning cosmetic surgery industry is no longer just for the rich

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