Since the days of Lipodissolve, which was a rage in the early 2000s, the search for an injectable fat dissolving drug has been ongoing. Taking one of the original compounds used in Lipodissolve, deoxycholic acid (DCA), Kythera has been doing clinical trials for its injectable drug ATX-101. This is a purified synthetic version of DCA which helps break down fat. They have been studying it for the specific application of the reduction of neck (submental) fat.
At the recent annual meeting of the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, Kythera presented findings from its Phase III clinical trial. Pooling all patients in their trials, around 80% of the patients treated with ATX-101 showed a visible improvement in their submental area (contour reduction) after four treatments regardless of age, gender, race and body mass index. The positive responder s felt they looked thinner and more youthful. Mild adverse events occurred as is expected with these treatments including temporary discomfort, swelling and bruising at the neck injection sites. These events were not severe for the vast majority of patients to discontinue treatments. (less than 2% did)
These clinical results follow what I observed years ago with the old Lipodissolve injections. While its effects do not rival what one could achieve with liposuction, they offer a non-surgical method of achieving a 25% to 50% comparative effect in my experience. For the properly selected patient, this can avoid the surgical process and associated downtime which can be very appealing.
One reality of these treatments is that its effects do not come with just a single injection session. Its best effects are seen by doing an injection series which numbers four in this study. Usually spaced out weeks apart, it takes several months to show their full effects. Each injection session is associated with visible swelling which takes about a week to go down. When factored over the months of injection sessions, this amounts to almost a week of ‘recovery’ from the treatments. These considerations must be considered when comparing it to surgical liposuction.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana