The US Food and Drug Administration has initiated a clinical trial to investigate the efficiency and safety of one type of injection lipolysis treatment. This is one of the types of treatment that are commonly associated with mesotherpy, or lipo-dissolve, meaning fat dissolving. These treatments claim they get rid of unwanted accumulations of fat, but they have ingredients, locations and techniques that can slightly vary. There is no consistency or accepted injection protocol or standardized chemical formulation. Many of these formulas are proprietary and have no scientifically valid studies to document their safety and their effectiveness or to compare them with one another.  Lipolysis by injection involves the injection of compounds into the subcutaneous fat. It is not approved by the FDA at this time for any purpose for subcutaneous injection.

The idea is to remove fat in a faster and more efficient way, especially useful for those pockets of fat that don’t respond to diet or exercise. A way to melt fat has long been sought, and many believe these systems will help.

Most physicians are pleased with the decision to move forward on clinical trials, believing the study to be long over due. The idea of course is to standardize practices and protocols and improve the safety of patients. The study will be conducted under the supervision of the FDA and will follow patients for 46 weeks, designed to evaluate efficacy of one form of injection lipolysis and to collect data on both local and systemic reactions and on any long term complications that might arise. The study will include biochemical analysis, clinical measurements and imaging for the purpose of objective evaluation of efficacy and safety of the treatment.

Clinical reports do exist of positive results but the reports and anecdotal and not enough evidence exists that can be verified. The study should eliminate this confusion and provide good long term information and clarification of the controversy and confusion surrounding this treatment, which is potentially beneficial. The more known, the better the patients can be educated.

The study will take a few months but in the end the patients will benefit from this increased knowledge through safety, standardization and hopefully from adoption of a new, effective treatment for dissolving fat. Doctors will be able to make better decisions and patients will have a new treatment to utilize when needed.

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