Healthcare Education Campaign Goes Global - eHealthInfoLine. com to Report on Lipodissolve Regulatory Action Overseas
Lipodissolve safety concerns are growing overseas. eHealthInfoLine. com will continue to track and report on lipodissolve regulatory action overseas.
Wenatchee, WA (PRWEB) September 10, 2008
eHealthinfoline. com, the consumer's choice for up-to-date news and information in the realm of health and fitness is currently expanding to provide readers with the latest on medicines abroad. "We at eHealthInfoLine aim to provide the most comprehensive database possible and believe that all consumers should have easy access to medical advances both in the US and overseas," says Bill Francis, a senior editor for eHealthInfoLine. com (http://www. ehealthinfoline. com/).
EHealthInfoLine. com has been tracking scientific breakthroughs and new drug approvals since the company's conception in 2007. Their Consumer Health News Monitoring Program has allowed them to follow breaking headlines on a wide variety of topics ranging from the latest tumor killing skin cancer drug to latest advances in plastic surgery. This month eHealthInfoLine's experts have been digging deep into the new spot fat removal treatment, Lipodissolve (http://www. lipotreatmentfacts. org/), to see what the global medical community is saying about this highly controversial procedure.
Lipodissolve, also known as injection lipolysis, is marketed as the non-invasive alternative to liposuction involving injections of phosphatidylcholine and deoxycholate (PCDC) into small deposits of fat. Outside of the US, the PCDC formulation is marketed by the name, Lipostabil®. According to the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (http://www. surgery. org/), over 33,000 injection lipolysis procedures were performed in 2007, despite the fact that the FDA has stated, "these are unapproved drugs for unapproved uses and we cannot guarantee consumers' safety."
"We feel that consumers have the right to know," says Francis. "When a warning or alert is issued about a medical treatment, we run a news search to track regulatory approvals or warnings in the United States and abroad."
Staff at eHealthInfoLine have found that Lipodissolve (http://www. ehealthinfoline. com/lipo_dissolve. html) has been banned or warned against in several countries. The National Agency of Health Inspection in Brazil banned the use of PCDC for injectable fat removal because the drug has never been approved for cosmetic use. In the UK, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) warned against the use of Lipostabil® and malpractice insurers withdrew coverage for physicians using PCDC. Furthermore, Health Canada has ordered physicians to stop marketing and administering PCDC for injectable fat removal because of the lack of well-controlled studies of safety and efficacy.
Despite the regulatory bans or warnings overseas, Lipodissolve is still being used worldwide especially across the U. S. and Europe. Network Lipolysis, an agency that certifies physicians in administering PCDC, has trained over 1,000 physicians worldwide on the practice of injection lipolysis. The trend may be slowing, however, because the FDA has issued numerous statements declaring, "Lipo-dissolve (http://www. lipotreatmentfacts. org/lipofaq. php) is not FDA approved for any use."
The research team at eHealthInfoLine has discovered a growing concern over PCDC injections by additional regulatory authorities overseas. In Australia for example, the Therapeutic Goods Administration is looking to rectify a loophole that allows the importation of Lipostabil® seeing that it is an unapproved drug and the Cosmetic Physicians Society of Australia has found it to cause severe side effects including considerable swelling that could last up to two weeks. New Zealand's regulatory authority, Medsafe (http://www. medsafe. govt. nz/), is also investigating the fat-busting injection by banning advertising of the treatment until it has been approved for distribution and subjecting offenders to hefty fines or jail time.
Staff at eHealthInfoLine. com will continue efforts to track regulatory actions and latest news on PCDC use as well as other therapies both on a domestic and international scale. "We believe that it is crucial to understand the regulatory status and enforcement actions of drug treatments across the world when making decisions on our health here in the United States," says Francis. "We want consumers to be educated about the healthcare decisions they make."
About eHealthInfoLine. com:
EHealthInfoLine. com is a free health care information directory and medical news tracker. Ordinary people use eHealthInfoLine. com to research common health conditions and find answers to commonly asked medical questions. The company is based in Wenatchee, Washington.
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