What Is the Deal With Mesotherapy?

As far as I am concerned, mesotherapy (injecting a liquid material into the body in order to cause something to dissolve) is the latest "snake oil" licensed and unlicensed practitioners are using to take advantage of our naïve, beauty craving American public.

Known as "Lipo-dissolve" or "Lipo-stabil," mesotherapy involves a series of injections into fatty areas that supposedly makes the fat disappear. It can be performed in a dermatologist's or plastic surgeon's office, but more commonly it is performed at a spa, and not by a dermatologist or plastic surgeon. Mesotherapy has been outlawed in Brazil, especially after it was discovered so many gyms and spas were using it in a completely unregulated fashion. Mesotherapy liquids for fat destruction are not approved by the FDA, and are not manufactured in a controlled setting.

These products can be put together at any compounding pharmacy, so there can be tremendous variation in what is made from one pharmacy to the next. Once made, the person injecting the mesotherapy liquid places it in the fatty area that a person wants dissolved. Usually, a series of injections is done on one focal area of fat over an interval of months. If an individual wants to destroy a larger area of fat, multiple injections are required over multiple visits, often with a "mesotherapy gun." A recent Washington Post article described one person who underwent 120 injections per visit to help destroy fat in the abdomen.

In contrast, with a procedure such as tumescent liposuction, fat can be safely removed from an area (such as the abdomen) while the patient is awake alert, and without pain. Local anesthesia is placed to numb the area to be treated, so the fat can be painlessly removed, just as it would with traditional liposuction when a person is put under general anesthesia. With tumescent liposuction, fat is removed from the body, rather than being left to die on its own inside the body (as in mesotherapy).

The American public demands the FDA scrutinize and rescrutinize every medication it approves for any possible risks and dangers. So, why does this same public so often seek unproven, unregulated,and unscrutinized therapies that have no FDA involvement or approval and where inherent risks and dangers aren't known? Especially when at the same time safer, easier, and less painful alternatives such as tumescent liposuction are already available right now.