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American Morning

Non-Surgical Procedures Developed for Cellulite

Aired September 03, 2003 - 08:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, ANCHOR: Forget liposuction, what if you could just melt away those fat cells?
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is back from vacation, joins us from Los Angeles to tell us a little bit about some of the latest cosmetic procedures.

Hey, Sanjay. Welcome back. Nice to see you. Thanks for joining us.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Yes, Soledad.

You've heard of doctors without borders? Well, these are surgeons without scalpels.

Cellulite and fat is a big business, no pun intended. There's obviously creams, medications, all sorts of different devices to get rid of the fat.

And the mainstay for a long time has been something called liposuction. Everybody knows what that is. This is an increasingly popular procedure. It is surgery now. You can see the procedure actually being done there.

About 372,000 of those procedures done last year, up over 100 percent from five years ago. Incidentally about 56,000 of those done in men. So a popular procedure for men, as well.

Now, the procedure costs about $2,500. Usually takes about six weeks to recover from this. That's a long time. Two to three weeks for just the bruising alone. And oftentimes it's not a permanent solution. So it's got all sorts of people thinking about different possibilities.

As you mentioned, Soledad, non-surgical options, as well. I want to tell you about a couple of them.

First of all something called mesotherapy. Now this is something you probably haven't heard of. There's only about eight to 10 mesotherapists in the United States. But it's been around in France since 1952.

First of all, just tell you right away, this costs about $6,000, so a lot more expensive even than liposuction, usually taking about eight to ten sessions. What they do, they actually inject a chemical in the skin layer. And this chemical of medications actually over time will actually -- it's supposed to any ways -- burn away some of the fat underneath the skin layer. It actually dissolves some of that fat.

Exactly how well that works or even if it works at all is a subject of great controversy. There have been no clinical trials showing that, really, one way or the other here in the United States.

Another procedure I want to talk about really quickly is endermologie. Endermologie is also something that's gaining a little bit of popularity.

This device actually looks a little bit like a vacuum cleaner or a handheld sander and really works sort of the same way. You actually sort of vacuum. It's right on the skin again. There are no needles, no invasiveness there. Actually sort of sounds like a vacuum cleaner, as well.

But what it does, basically, again is try and burn some of the fat underneath.

Neither one of those techniques, Soledad, and I'll tell you this right up front, because a lot of people are sort of interested in this, none of them have any scientific trials behind them.

Another technique known as ultrasound, just the basic ultrasound that everyone, again, has heard of that, is gaining a little bit more popularity. This has been around in Israel now for some time. We talked to a lot of plastic surgeons about actually using ultrasound, which is just high frequency sound waves, again, just on the abdomen, on the neck, something like that.

This was the procedure that most of the plastic surgeons we talked to says has the most promise. No clinical trials on that, as well. But that's something that may -- look out for that one, ultrasound, to try and burn away some of the fat.

O'BRIEN: I want to ask you a question about the story we covered yesterday. This man who got an 18-inch long drill bit through his eye, I guess, into his head, and there were pictures. This is obviously the X-ray here. We showed pictures of him clearly describing for people and showing people -- there he is.

And he obviously has lost an eye. But beyond that he looks from here at least fine. Give me a sense of, as a neurosurgeon, how this is possible.

GUPTA: Eighteen inches long, 1 1/2-inch diameter nail. This is a pretty dramatic picture even for a neurosurgeon.

One of the important things, you're looking at a side picture there. You're looking at the actual drill bit there, but a side picture, one thing it doesn't tell you -- it certainly, obviously, went through his skull, went through his head. But it actually went off to the side of his brain.

It got through the right eye and then actually glanced off the side of the brain, not hitting any of the major blood vessels either inside or outside the brain, which is sort of the key to the whole thing.

The reason people die after something like this is more so because the, whatever the penetrating object is, actually pierces a blood vessel, and that blood vessel starts to bleed uncontrollably. And that's what actually can kill somebody. That didn't happen in this case. And that's why people like this can survive.

We've talked about other sort of things like this. Someone put a spear gun through their chin off the top of their head last year, as well. Survived that. These sorts of things do happen. They are dramatic. That's a particularly dramatic picture, I have to say for sure. And he obviously lost his eye. But I think he's going to do very well from that.

O'BRIEN: As a neurosurgeon, when you say it's dramatic, and that's sort of saying you're grossed out. I've got to tell you the rest of us, really, really grossed out. Pretty amazing. Thanks.

Nice to see you. Welcome back.

GUPTA: Good to see you, Soledad.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired September 3, 2003 - 08:44   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, ANCHOR: Forget liposuction, what if you could just melt away those fat cells?
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is back from vacation, joins us from Los Angeles to tell us a little bit about some of the latest cosmetic procedures.

Hey, Sanjay. Welcome back. Nice to see you. Thanks for joining us.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Yes, Soledad.

You've heard of doctors without borders? Well, these are surgeons without scalpels.

Cellulite and fat is a big business, no pun intended. There's obviously creams, medications, all sorts of different devices to get rid of the fat.

And the mainstay for a long time has been something called liposuction. Everybody knows what that is. This is an increasingly popular procedure. It is surgery now. You can see the procedure actually being done there.

About 372,000 of those procedures done last year, up over 100 percent from five years ago. Incidentally about 56,000 of those done in men. So a popular procedure for men, as well.

Now, the procedure costs about $2,500. Usually takes about six weeks to recover from this. That's a long time. Two to three weeks for just the bruising alone. And oftentimes it's not a permanent solution. So it's got all sorts of people thinking about different possibilities.

As you mentioned, Soledad, non-surgical options, as well. I want to tell you about a couple of them.

First of all something called mesotherapy. Now this is something you probably haven't heard of. There's only about eight to 10 mesotherapists in the United States. But it's been around in France since 1952.

First of all, just tell you right away, this costs about $6,000, so a lot more expensive even than liposuction, usually taking about eight to ten sessions. What they do, they actually inject a chemical in the skin layer. And this chemical of medications actually over time will actually -- it's supposed to any ways -- burn away some of the fat underneath the skin layer. It actually dissolves some of that fat.

Exactly how well that works or even if it works at all is a subject of great controversy. There have been no clinical trials showing that, really, one way or the other here in the United States.

Another procedure I want to talk about really quickly is endermologie. Endermologie is also something that's gaining a little bit of popularity.

This device actually looks a little bit like a vacuum cleaner or a handheld sander and really works sort of the same way. You actually sort of vacuum. It's right on the skin again. There are no needles, no invasiveness there. Actually sort of sounds like a vacuum cleaner, as well.

But what it does, basically, again is try and burn some of the fat underneath.

Neither one of those techniques, Soledad, and I'll tell you this right up front, because a lot of people are sort of interested in this, none of them have any scientific trials behind them.

Another technique known as ultrasound, just the basic ultrasound that everyone, again, has heard of that, is gaining a little bit more popularity. This has been around in Israel now for some time. We talked to a lot of plastic surgeons about actually using ultrasound, which is just high frequency sound waves, again, just on the abdomen, on the neck, something like that.

This was the procedure that most of the plastic surgeons we talked to says has the most promise. No clinical trials on that, as well. But that's something that may -- look out for that one, ultrasound, to try and burn away some of the fat.

O'BRIEN: I want to ask you a question about the story we covered yesterday. This man who got an 18-inch long drill bit through his eye, I guess, into his head, and there were pictures. This is obviously the X-ray here. We showed pictures of him clearly describing for people and showing people -- there he is.

And he obviously has lost an eye. But beyond that he looks from here at least fine. Give me a sense of, as a neurosurgeon, how this is possible.

GUPTA: Eighteen inches long, 1 1/2-inch diameter nail. This is a pretty dramatic picture even for a neurosurgeon.

One of the important things, you're looking at a side picture there. You're looking at the actual drill bit there, but a side picture, one thing it doesn't tell you -- it certainly, obviously, went through his skull, went through his head. But it actually went off to the side of his brain.

It got through the right eye and then actually glanced off the side of the brain, not hitting any of the major blood vessels either inside or outside the brain, which is sort of the key to the whole thing.

The reason people die after something like this is more so because the, whatever the penetrating object is, actually pierces a blood vessel, and that blood vessel starts to bleed uncontrollably. And that's what actually can kill somebody. That didn't happen in this case. And that's why people like this can survive.

We've talked about other sort of things like this. Someone put a spear gun through their chin off the top of their head last year, as well. Survived that. These sorts of things do happen. They are dramatic. That's a particularly dramatic picture, I have to say for sure. And he obviously lost his eye. But I think he's going to do very well from that.

O'BRIEN: As a neurosurgeon, when you say it's dramatic, and that's sort of saying you're grossed out. I've got to tell you the rest of us, really, really grossed out. Pretty amazing. Thanks.

Nice to see you. Welcome back.

GUPTA: Good to see you, Soledad.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com