Liposuction and mesotherapy are popular but invasive treatments for fat reduction of lower face. Various non-invasive cooling and radiofrequency devices are available, but these applications have not previously been studied in facial fat reduction. In a recent study published in Lasers in Surgery and Medicine (LSM), the official journal of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery Inc, (ASLMS), Monopolar 1-MHz RF for body contouring is applied for fat reduction and tightening of the lower face.

The research was conducted by Jun Sugawara, MD, PhD; Seiko Kou, MD; Kenichi Kokubo, MD; Aimi Kuroda, MD; Yoshie Hashizume, MD; Shinji Kobayashi, MD, PhD; Jirou Maegawa, MD, PhD; and Toshihiko Satake, MD, PhD. Their manuscript titled, “Application for lower facial fat reduction and tightening by static type monopolar 1-MHz radio frequency?for body contouring” was selected as Editor’s Choice in the October 2017 issue of LSM.

“This paper describes the clinical studies aimed at evaluating the efficacy of applications of radio frequency (RF) devices for body contouring and facial contouring, where the results were obtained from three-dimensional volumetric assessment using VECTRA 3D. We objectively observed a volumetric change of average 2.7 mL without any complication. The study indicated that this treatment is safe and very effective in fat reduction, and so has a potential for becoming one of the standard non-invasive treatments for the facial contour,” Sugawara says.

The author of this paper is a Guest Researcher at the Department of Plastic Surgery, Yokohama City University Medical Center, headed by Prof Maegawa, who is the co-author of this report. Dr Jun Sugawara initially specialized as a plastic and cosmetic surgeon and later indulged in clinical studies of laser treatment for Asians at the University in parallel with the surgical treatments, which led him to focus on the melasma treatment for the Asians and to compile an original article regarding complications of toning which was subsequently published in this journal.

Dr Sugawara has recently specialized in cosmetic surgery and non-invasive rejuvenation treatment, as well as in the study of a treatment by deploying a combination of the key elements of cosmetic surgery and devices. “This report was compiled during the process of studying new possibilities of non-invasive facial contouring, while my ultimate aspiration is to clearly differentiate invasive vis-à-vis non-invasive treatment based on objective evaluation,” Sugawara says.

[Source: American Society for Laser Medicine & Surgery Inc]