Fat Removal without Surgery

I presented the results of research on a new drug at the annual meeting of the American Society of Plastic Surgery last week.  Read here.  This drug – now called “ATX-101” – is derived from cow bile.  The active ingredient is deoxycholate (DC).  The purpose of this substance is to digest fats that we eat.  The magic of this ingredient is that proteins inhibit the action of it, which is just one more miracle of evolution, as it therefore allows digestion of fats while preserving our own digestive tract.  Just like it can dissolve fats we eat, so too can it dissolve unwanted fat when purified amounts of it are injected through small needles.  This study has examined the effect on submental fat, which is the extra fat beneath the chin responsible for the so-called “double-chin.”  Blinded observers of the photographs were clearly able to see a difference in the treated patients.  And the treated patients all noticed a statistically significant improvement over baseline.

Most important, there were no serious adverse events, just little things like localized pain and swelling, all of which resolved soon after the treatment.

I participated in part of the study.  We took a group of women who were going to have abdominoplasties, and injected varying concentrations of it into the areas that we knew we were going to remove at various time intervals before their surgery.  Once the tissue was removed, it was analyzed under a microscope.  This allowed us to learn on a microscopic level what this drug really did.

It is still a long, long time away from FDA approval.  But if the safety and efficacy data continues to look so good, then it is just a matter of time.

So if you want your chin treated in the meantime, see what liposuction of the chin can do…the results are pretty amazing: http://www.drteitelbaum.com/before_after_photos_neck_lipo.html