Liposuction for chronic lipoedema – NICE Guidance

NICE is the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care in England.

The guidance states evidence on the safety of liposuction for chronic lipoedema is inadequate but raises concerns of major adverse events such as fluid imbalance, fat embolism, deep vein thrombosis, and toxicity from local anaesthetic agents.

Evidence on the efficacy is also inadequate, based mainly on retrospective studies with methodological limitations. Therefore, this procedure should only be used in the context of research.