7 Healthcast: Fat Dissolving Injection

You've been exercising and dieting - but those love handles just won't go away. You could try liposuction - where fat is literally sucked out. But how about a simple injection that dissolves the fat?

Janet Brand, Lipoma patient
"Wherever I had an excess of fat."

"You might use it?"

Janet Brand, Lipoma patient
"Oh yeah, definitely."

Agnes Martin, Lipoma patient
"What would I want to get rid of? My love handles, that would be great."

Agnes is not going to reshape her body, but she is trying an injection to dissolve some misplaced fat.

It's a naturally occurring enzyme called collagenase and it's part of a FDA approved clinical trial.

Dr. Zacchary Gerut, Plastic surgeon
"Since it breaks down collagen, we feel that it disrupts or breaks down the connections between fat cells and then the fat cells just dissolve."

Collagenase is being used to dissolve lipomas - benign lumps of fat that can be unsightly and cause pain if they press on a nerve.

Dr. Zacchary Gerut, Plastic surgeon
"The only possible treatment up till now has been surgery. They can be excised directly with a fairly large scar."

Patients get a single injection into the lipoma. In a few days bruising appears, then swelling remains for a few weeks and then:

Janet Brand, Lipoma patient
"In about, maybe four, five, six months, then it was like, 'it's gone!" It's not there anymore. So it was good in that regard."

The enzyme is broken down by the body so it doesn't just keep dissolving away through the body. So far, this phase one FDA trial is just for lipomas. If collagenase proves safe and effective, it may move on to wider fat removal testing.