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• Posted January 2, 2026

AI Could Help Make Liposuction Safer, Experts Say

Considering some plastic surgery as part of a New Year’s makeover?

A newly developed AI model is promising to make liposuction a safer procedure by accurately predicting blood loss among patients.

Overall, the AI was 94% accurate in predicting the amount of blood a person would lose during high-volume liposuction, researchers report in the January 2026 issue of the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

“Developing and implementing our AI model for predicting blood loss in liposuction is a groundbreaking advancement that promises to improve patient safety and surgical outcomes,” concluded the research team led by Dr. Mauricio Pérez Pachon, a research fellow at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

“By harnessing the evolving nature of AI, we may move toward a future where operations are smarter, safer and more tailored to the individual needs of each patient,” the team wrote.

Liposuction is the most frequent cosmetic surgery procedure performed worldwide, with more than 2.3 million patients receiving the treatment each year.

Although liposuction is generally safe, excessive blood loss is a potentially serious problem, especially when higher volumes of fat are being removed from a person’s body, researchers said.

For the new study, researchers trained an AI device on data from 621 patients who underwent large-volume liposuction at two clinics, one in Colombia and one in Ecuador.

The team then tested the AI’s accuracy among another 100 liposuction patients from the two clinics.

Results showed “excellent agreement” between predicted blood loss volumes and the actual amount of blood lost, researchers said. The standard deviation was 26 milliliters, or less than nine-tenths of an ounce.

"Such accuracy reinforces the model's potential as a decision-support tool in body contouring procedures, where anticipating intraoperative blood loss is crucial for patient safety and operative planning," the researchers wrote.

"Surgeons can use the predicted blood loss estimates to make informed decisions about perioperative management, such as the need for blood transfusions, fluid management and other critical care measures,” the team added.

The research team plans to conduct additional studies to further refine the AI model, including training with data provided by surgeons around the world.

"We believe that future research into AI technology has limitless potential to enhance patient safety, and we look forward to continued development in this area,” Pérez Pachon said.

More information

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons has more on liposuction.

SOURCES: Wolters Kluwer Health, news release, Dec. 24, 2025; Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, January 2026