What's the "safe" amount of fat to remove in patients undergoing liposuction? Rather than a hard-and-fast rule, the answer depends on the patient's body mass index (BMI), according to a report in the September issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). "Our study shows that liposuction is associated with a very low complication rate, with major complications occurring in less than 1 in 1,000 patients," comments ASPS Member Surgeon John Y.S. Kim of Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago. "It also calls into question the concept of simple absolute thresholds for lipoaspirate volume—the amount of liposuction that can be performed safely seems to depend in part on how much fat content a person begins with." Study Proposes 'Relative Liposuction Volume Threshold' Based on BMI There's a long history of debate over the safe volume of fat tissue that can be removed by liposuction. Current ASPS guidelines define 5,000 milliliters (five liters) as "large-volume liposuction" potentially associated with a higher risk of complications. But the guidelines acknowledge there is no scientific data to support an absolute cutoff point. Dr. Kim and colleagues analyzed data on more than 4,500 liposuction patients, drawn from the ASPS's "Tracking Operations and Outcomes for Plastic Surgeons" (TOPS) database. They evaluated the relationship between liposuction volume and complication risk—including interactions with the patient's BMI. Read more at plasticsurgery.org.