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Aesth Plast Surg (2010) 34:239243 DOI 10.1007/s00266-009-9459-0
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Carbon Dioxide Therapy in the Treatment of Cellulite: An Audit of Clinical Practice
Georgia S. K. Lee
Received: 20 July 2008 / Accepted: 17 October 2008 / Published online: 29 January 2010 The Author(s) 2010. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
AbstractBackground The clinical practice of using carbon dioxide therapy for localized adiposities was audited over a 4-year period.
Methods Patients receiving physical, dietary, or drug concurrent therapy were excluded from the audit. Original measurements in terms of mean standard error of the mean (SEM) were compared with those obtained after ve sessions.
Results This series included 101 women who underwent abdominal therapy. Signicant reduction (p \ 0.05) in mean upper, mid, and lower abdomen circumference was experienced by all three age groups: respectively,1.8 0.5, 1.6 0.4, and 2.1 0.3 cm in the 20- to 29-year- old group, 1.6 0.4, 2.3 0.3, and 2.1 0.3 cm in the 30- to 39-year-old group, and 2.0 0.4, 2.5 0.4, and2.6 0.4 cm in the 40- to 50-year-old group. For 57 women who underwent localized thigh therapy (27 in the 20- to 29-year-old group, 18 in the 30- to 39-year-old group, and 12 in the 40- to 50-year-old group), thigh circumference was signicantly reduced in the right versus left thigh: respectively, 1.6 0.3 versus 1.5 0.2 cm,1.1 0.3 versus 1.1 0.3 cm, 1.6 0.3 versus 1.5 0.4. Weight loss was signicant for older women who underwent abdominal therapy: 1.3 0.2 kg in the 30- to 39-year-old group (n = 43) and 1.3 0.2 kg in the 40- to 50 year-old group (n = 29). Older women who underwent thigh therapy also recorded signicant weight reduction:0.9 0.4 kg in the 30- to 39-year-old group (n = 18) and
1.6 0.3 kg in the 40- to 50-year-old group (n = 12). The results for 10 men were not signicant.
Conclusion These results agree with those reported originally and demonstrate that carboxytherapy is safe and effective.
Keywords Audit Carbon dioxide Cellulite
Localized adiposity
Carbon dioxide (CO2) therapy or carboxytherapy is the transcutaneous administration of CO2 for therapeutic purposes. Since Brandi et al. [1] described the efcacy of CO2 in treating localized adiposities, showing measurable reductions in maximum circumferences...