Question: What is Kybella? Will it really dissolve fat? Is it safe? Does it replace liposuction?
Answer:
Kybella is an injection that destroys fat cells. The FDA says it is safe. It is unlikely to replace liposuction except in treatment of small areas of excess fat. Here is what you need to know:
Kybella or ATX-101 is deoxycholic acid, an acid produced in our bile to emulsify fat. When injected into living fat, it kills fat cells.
Kybella was approved on April 29, 2015 by the FDA as safe and effective for reducing fat under the chin. Since deoxycholic acid has been used for years in mesotherapy to destroy fat cells, Kybella will most likely be used from the start “off-label” for other fatty areas. In effect, it is FDA approved mesotherapy.
Kythera Biopharmaceuticals, which makes Kybella, was unprepared for approval. As a result, it is now hastily setting up programs to sell the product and train doctors to use it. This will begin in June 2015. Treatment will mean 6 sessions of injections – up to 50 at a time – spaced a month or more apart.
Bile acids are powerful and not surprisingly, deoxycholine injections can destroy not only fat, but skin, nerves and muscles so treatment is not risk free. Some studies show that all patients have some kind of side-effect, typically swelling, bruising, pain, numbness, redness and hardness. Permanent skin, nerve and muscle damage can also occur.
Not everyone responds to treatment. In one ATX-101 study of 363 patients given 4 treatments, only 65% of people saw any improvement. In another study, after 5 treatments, 75% saw improvement, but the average improvement was minimal.
Any injection of a powerful acid is a compromise between ultra-safe injection with minimal response and aggressive injection with serious complications. This has always been the problem with mesotherapy, but with the FDA approval and standardized treatment, Kybella and other forms of deoxycholic acid will be an option for people with excess fat to whom the risks seem acceptable compared to the improvement they want without surgery.
Finally, what does Kybella mean? It is the name of an ancient and overweight mythological goddess of fertility, Kybele. The company that makes it, Kythera Biopharmaceuticals of Westlake Village, California is named after the Greek island which was the mythological home of Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of beauty.