The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has approved deoxycholate (DC) for injection lipolysis indications for non-operative techniques for body contouring purposes. Giving injections of lipolytic agents for the purpose of reducing subcutaneous fat has become a popular trend in Europe and South America since the last 5 decades. Agents that have been tried for lipolytic mesotherapy are aminophylline, buflomedil, lidocaine, isoproterenol, yohimbine, melilotus, phosphatidylcholine (PPC) and deoxycholate (DC).
The double-blind study conducted by dr. Giovanni and colleagues, wished to evaluate the efficacy of a combination of PC and DC lipolytic agents. This study assessed the safety and side effects of this therapy. The study was conducted on 40 female subjects who had localized fat in gynoid lipodystrophy. Each patient received a PC/DC injection on one side, and a single DC on the contralateral side.
Therapy is carried out every 8 weeks for 4 times. Evaluation of circumferential metric, photographic and ultrasonographic measurements was performed. Prior to initiation of therapy, each patient underwent a 7.5-MHZ ultrasound evaluation. The study used PPC/DC (PPC/DEOX) 250/125 mg per vial (50-25 mg/mL in 5 mL vial). Meanwhile, the DC (DEOX) preparation used was 237.5 mg per vial (47.5 mg/mL in 5 mL vial). The study used 1,000/500 mg PPC/DC and 475 mg DC dissolved in 40 mL saline per solution. Each patient received a subcutaneous injection in the gluteotrocanteric region with PPC/DC on one side and DC on the contralateral side, using a 27G needle, 0.5 mL of the solution was injected at each point with an injection angle of 75-90 degrees.
From the study showed the results that: thirty-seven patients completed this study. It was found that 3 patients (8.1%) had no improvement and 34 patients had improvement (91.9%). In the overall group, the average weight loss was 1.44% (58.53-57.69 kg) with an average body mass index decrease of 1.3%. The average decrease in circumferential metric value decreased 6.47% on the PPC/DC side and 6.77% on the DC side. On ultrasound measurements, it was found that there was a decrease of 36.87% on the PPC/DC side and 36.06% on the DC side. The patient complained of pain during treatment with VAS 6.2 on injection with DC and 4.6 on injection with PC/DC.
Based on this study showed that PC/DC and DC therapy showed equivalent efficacy in local fat therapy.
Image: Illustration (sumber: Healthyfood.co.nz)
References: Salti G, Ghersetich I, Tantussi F, Bovani B, Lotti T. Phosphatidylcholine and sodium deoxycholate in the treatment of localized fat: a double-blind, randomized study. Dermatol Surg Off Publ Am Soc Dermatol Surg Al. 2008 Jan;34(1):60–6; discussion 66.
