The lipediema or sometimes wrongly called “elephant legs syndrome” or “elephantiasis”, is an exaggerated accumulation of fat and fluid in the lower limbs. This circumstance may affect only the legs or may extend along the entire lower limb, legs and thighs and even buttocks. Something surprising about this pathology or disease is that it does not affect the feet, that is, it affects from the ankles upwards.
It is very common to confuse lipedema with cellulite but we do not talk about the same thing. Our body has two layers of fat under the skin, superficial fat and deep fat. These two levels of fat are separated by a fibrous membrane called fascial superficialis. Cellulite is a consequence of the accumulation of fluids in the level of fat surface and since between the different fat cells (adipocytes) we have fibrous septa that go from the skin to the musculature, it is these septums that will give rise to the so-called “skin of orange “or cellulite when excess fluid accumulates in these partitions. In contrast, lipedema occurs both deep and superficially and hence, in addition to the typical cellulitis there is an increase in the diameter of the affected limb and a much tougher touch than typical cellulite.
The lipedema (“elephant legs”) must be treated in a multidisciplinary manner, that is, it requires various actions, both surgical and non-surgical.
TREATMENT OF NON-SURGICAL LIPEDEMA
The most important thing to point out is that through non-surgical treatments the improvement will be much more discreet, that is, our advice is to use them as maintenance after a liposuction. The options are the following
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Diet and exercise: lipedema is usually resistant to diet but living a healthy life and exercising help the result to be more stable.
- Compression stockings: they will help above all not to accumulate so many liquids in the lower limbs and in a sustained manner over time they induce adipolysis or fat consumption of these adipocytes.
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Physiotherapy: Manual lymphatic drainage and especially kneading techniques; Both techniques favor the return of the lymphatic fluid of the lower limbs, drainage, which makes it difficult to fill these fat cells (adipocytes). Likewise, physiotherapy always helps to favor the drainage of fluids in addition to the lymphatic fluid itself.
- Indiba Radiofrequency: the radiofrequency facilitates the drainage of liquids as well as the lipolysis of adipocytes. It also has beneficial effects on the level of skin elasticity so this improvement of the skin would also facilitate drainage of the lower limbs.
- TREATMENT WITH SURGERY
The lipedema should be treated by liposuction because it is the only way to remove stored fat in the lower limbs. In addition, liposuction will extract those pathological cells with a special tendency to capture fat, so once liposuction is done, it will be especially difficult to accumulate fat again.
