Cellulite: Pathophysiology and Treatment PDF

Preface

Artists in painting and sculpture over the last two millennia have perceived beauty in a woman's fi gure as consisting in few muscles and a thick layer of subcutaneous fat. However, within the last four decades, there has been a radical change in perception, with today's society defi ning the ideal female body as youthful and almost pre-pubertal; well-defi ned musculature with very little body fat is now the ideal. Th is recent defi nition of beauty has led to the development of a new medical "disease," cellulite.

Cellulite can best be described as a normal physiologic state in post-adolescent women whose purpose is to maximize adipose retention to ensure adequate caloric availability for pregnancy and lactation. Almost all women who are not cachectic have cellulite.

The topic of cellulite appears every month on multiple television medical and talk shows, as well as in the lay public women's health magazines (which oft en show the cellulite in various female celebrities caught wearing a bathing suit, without the benefi t of the air brushing that their publicity photographs undergo). Demand for the treatment of cellulite has become extremely popular: "90% of women have cellulite and the other 10% think they do." Sales of various topical therapies constitute a multimillion-dollar business; it is estimated that the sales of cellulite equipment is over 30 million dollars each year.

It is therefore time for a comprehensive textbook on the pathophysiology and treatment of cellulite. Th is subject is not taught in medical schools nor in residency training programs and there are few medical publications in the English language on this subject. As patients go to their physicians (mostly cosmetic and plastic surgeons and dermatologists) to seek advice on the pathophysiology and treatment of cellulite, physicians will need to educate themselves on this subject.

To this end, we have enlisted the enthusiastic support of some of the world's leaders in cellulite research. Th ese respected professors and clinicians from the USA, Brazil, France, Italy, Argentina, Canada, Th ailand and El Salvador are recognized as leaders on this subject. Th ey have published numerous scientifi c papers on this subject in both their native languages and English. Our role as editors of this work, in addition to contributing separate chapters on our own unique research, is to ensure that this second edition of Cellulite is complete and up to date. We look forward to this textbook stimulating further research eventuating improved treatment of this cosmetically important condition.