Why can’t surgeons ‘cut’ our fat off like a steak, and instead need to ‘suck’ it out to remove fat?

r/

Why can’t surgeons ‘cut’ our fat off like a steak, and instead need to ‘suck’ it out to remove fat?

Comments

  1. alanmitch34 Avatar

    I think the hard part of that is keeping you alive at the same time but good question 

  2. -aVOIDant- Avatar

    You mean literally just cut your belly rolls off? That would be incredibly traumatic, need massive skin grafts, and leave hideous scarring. If you even survived. I feel like dying from blood loss would be a real concern.

  3. Active_Drawer Avatar

    Do you mean like skin and all? If so, that’s why. Your skin doesn’t regenerate like that. You can’t just cut from the outside a hunk of meat off. You would be scarred to shit if you even survived

  4. emuandfox Avatar

    They do. Look up an ‘apronectomy’. 
    Problems with scarring, poor tissue quality and fat regain. 

  5. TheApiary Avatar

    You can do that on a steak because it doesn’t have any skin

  6. weaslelou Avatar

    I suppose they could if they did it a bit at a time and laparoscopically. That would avoid the complications others have mentioned. Might even cause less physical trauma and bruising too. It would probably take longer though, and then you may start running into issues with anaesthesia. Hmmm, you’ve got me thinking now….

  7. Alarming_Corgi_3400 Avatar

    They can, more or less. That’s how DIEP flap breast reconstruction works.

  8. catwhowalksbyhimself Avatar

    Because they want to cause as little damage as possible. Sucking the fat out causes far less damage and needs far less healing than what you describe.

    And it already needs enough.

    Because cut apart and put back to together is quite traumatic. The fact we can consistently survive it at all is amazing enough.

  9. Turds4Cheese Avatar

    Scaring would be crazy!!! People want to look good when they are paying for an elective surgery.

    You can just start cutting, but gonna look rough after.

  10. NothingbutNetiPot Avatar

    I’m curious what will happen to the field of bariatric surgery when GLP-1 agonists become wide spread.

  11. Party_Building1898 Avatar

    Wow,wait,you wonder why
    Op what’s your age do you work?

  12. sassafrassaclassa Avatar

    I would assume that they can but it would be a much harder and more expensive process because they would have to reattach the skin?

    Good question.

  13. EvenEquivalent4 Avatar

    In the US we call it an abdominoplasty. It’s usually done by making a large incision near your pubic bone, cutting off a large portion of the fat on the lower abdomen and some of the overlying skin, then pulling the upper abdominal skin down and attaching it to the skin by the pubic bone. Then they create a new belly button looking scar in the skin so it looks like a more normal abdomen.
    This is usually done more often when there is loose skin from pregnancy and weight loss more than just for fat removal however.

  14. Barbarian_818 Avatar

    Well, for starters, the white fat from beef and the yellow adipose tissue in humans has a very different consistency. A difference that gets enhanced by the beef fat usually being cooked before it’s trimmed.

    Human fat is more like the yellow fat found in poultry. And it is threaded with a web of connective tissue that helps hold it in place, lymph ducts and blood vessels. Flensing your stomach and debridement of the fat would sever all that.

    But sucking it out means a small incision and minimal damage to other tissues. Using ultrasound helps liquify the fat, making it easier and less damaging to remove. Laser cauterization causes the connective tissues to shrivel, pulling the skin closer to the underlying muscle tissue for a more aesthetic result.

  15. Prestigious-Fan3122 Avatar

    I’ve never bought a steak at the store that still has skin on it. I do, however, have a navy blue leather sofa. Sometimes I feel guilty thinking about how many blue cows had to die just so I could have my sofa.

  16. LookinAtTheFjord Avatar

    Lolololololol

    My god.

  17. mothwhimsy Avatar

    That would be a highly invasive and traumatic surgery with insane recovery time, and would probably not heal in a pleasant looking way. Doctors generally want surgeries to not be those things

  18. InspectorOk2454 Avatar

    Bc we’re not flat.

  19. superpenistendo Avatar

    Maybe because that procedure already costs an arm and a leg

  20. PaceFair1976 Avatar

    fat is not the same as meat. its a physically different substance inside the body.

  21. Apprehensive_Lie_177 Avatar

    Ngl I misread that as “Why don’t surgeons suck our fat out like steak?” and imagined a very hungry surgeon just slurp-slurping it like fine dining. 

  22. Alh84001-1984 Avatar

    Sometimes they do chop it off, along with the skin, and suture the edges together. This is used for morbidly obese patients, on whom using liposuction would leave behind an unmanageable surface of flappy skin.

  23. KindAwareness3073 Avatar

    You like scars? That’s how you get scars.

  24. Crystalraf Avatar

    They do. It’s called a tummy tuck.

  25. coder7426 Avatar

    So they only need a small incision or 2, instead of faleting you open and having a tons of stitches, would be my guess.

  26. SecretSquirrelType Avatar

    little hole to suck out fat vs. big gaping hole to cut it out.