Signs you are a candidate for thigh liposuction

Thigh liposuction suits a narrower group of patients than most contouring operations, because the thigh is unforgiving of poor skin quality. These are the findings that make it reasonable.

1. The deposits are localised

Inner thigh fullness causing the legs to rub when walking; outer thigh deposits that widen the line of the hips; less commonly, deposits at the front or back of the thigh. What these have in common is that they are discrete and out of proportion to the rest of the leg, rather than part of generalised fullness.

2. You are near a stable weight

This is a contouring operation, not a treatment for weight. It works best in patients close to their settled weight, and the weight should have been stable rather than moving. It will not meaningfully change what the scales say.

3. Skin elasticity is good

The single most important finding on the thigh. Skin has to retract smoothly over the reduced volume. Skin that has lost elasticity — with age, with sun damage, with smoking, or after large weight loss — will drape instead, and the result looks worse than the starting point. Where laxity is significant a thigh lift, which removes skin at the cost of a scar, is the correct operation, alone or combined.

4. General health is good

Uncontrolled diabetes, significant cardiac disease, active infection and disorders of clotting all need addressing before an elective operation. Healing is quicker and complications fewer where these are controlled.

5. You have tried the alternatives

Liposuction is not a substitute for diet and exercise, and it works best in people who have established those and found that a specific deposit does not respond. Fat distribution is genetic and localised deposits frequently do not yield to general measures — but that has to be demonstrated rather than assumed.

6. The complaint is specific

Clothing that does not fit across the thigh when it fits elsewhere; legs that look out of proportion to the waist and hips. A specific complaint is easier to satisfy than a general dissatisfaction.

7. You understand what recovery involves

Bruising and soreness in the first days, compression worn for several weeks, light work within about a week and exercise reintroduced over three to four. The contour continues to settle for months afterwards.

What it will not do

It does not treat cellulite, which is a matter of the fibrous septa tethering the skin rather than of fat volume. It does not tighten skin. Removed fat cells do not return, but weight gained afterwards is distributed among those that remain.

Risks

Bruising and swelling in all cases. Temporary numbness and contour irregularity are the realistic concerns; irregularity matters more on the thigh than elsewhere because the surface is large and the light falls across it. Infection is uncommon.