Melting Fat

A new kid on the block, Kythera’s ATX-101, sounds like a new space star wars game.  It is actually an experimental product injected into the submental fat to help melt it away.  It is a proprietary formulation of deoxy cholate.  When injected into the submental fat it melts the fat away.  

I remember a few years ago when mesotherapy was the new, hot "in" thing.  As a Fort Myers plastic surgeon, I had a patient who hated her chin, but did not want surgery.  So we did “mesotherapy”.  We did two, three, then four injections of deoxy cholate – no response.  Do we stop or try one more?  We decided to do one more injection and to everyone’s amazement, the fat seemed to melt away.  It was dramatic, but she was left with loose skin and submental – platysmal bands.  

So, I guess you have to pick your option.  Anyway, the clinical trials on Kythera’s ATX-101 are going well and it may soon be available for clinicians to use on their patients.