Mesotherapy

"Just say no!"

Mesotherapy is the injection of vitamins and other random products into the subcutaneous fat to allegedly reduce the fat or improve cellulite. This non-scientific procedure is being promoted by some practitioners in the United States.

"The honest truth is how do you know something is safe when it is really experimental medicine? The best I can tell is mesotherapy is truly a form of human experimentation because there is no peer-reviewed scientific data on its use, to my knowledge, in the English literature. I find it somewhat appalling that in America today people are allowed to market and practice mesotherapy when there is no data on its safety, let alone efficacy. In fact, I believe mesotherapy is an accident waiting to happen, including infections. I am very surprised that the FDA has not come down harder on some of the illicit marketing claims that mesotherapy is better than liposuction. There is simply no data, no science and no information, to my knowledge, that mesotherapy works." Rod Rohrich, M.D., Chairman, Dept. of Plastic Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas.

Dr. Robin Ashinoff, speaking for the American Academy of Dermatology, says "A simple injection is giving people false hope. Everybody's looking for a quick fix. But there is no quick fix for fat or fat deposits or for cellulite." The American Society for Dermatologic Surgery informed its members in February 2005 that "further study is warranted before this technique can be endorsed."

In the April 2006 issue of "Dermatologic Surgery," Adam Rotunda, M.D. (a UCLA dermatologist) states, "Additional clinical and experimental studies are necessary to more definitively establish the safety and efficacy of these treatments."