She wanted weight loss — but instead, she lost money and self-esteem.
UK mother Julia Lanni, 58, says she bellied up about $155 last summer for 16 fat-dissolving Aqualyx injections in her stomach in the hopes they would boost her body confidence.
What she got was a 2.75-inch hole in her stomach that required emergency surgery.
“This treatment was certainly life-changing, but not in the way I wanted,” Lanni, of Hertfordshire, England, admitted to SWNS. “My confidence is even lower than it was before. My weight was the same after the treatment and I’ve been left with a scar.”
Fat-dissolving or lipolysis injections have been marketed as a nonsurgical alternative to removing body fat. These injections are commonly administered to “problem areas” such as the chin, legs, upper arms and abdomen.
Lanni sought out the injections in July 2023 after menopausal weight gain left her dissatisfied with her appearance.
Seeking a cost-conscious, noninvasive way to lose belly fat, she booked an injection session at a local salon. The practitioner injected 16 measures of Aqualyx into Lanni’s midsection.
She said she signed a waiver and was told to wait three to four days before seeking medical attention should she experience any adverse side effects.
Immediately following her treatment, Lanni felt intense heat and pain around the injection site, which she tried to alleviate by applying damp paper towels.
Her pain worsened in the days that followed, and she eventually developed a fist-size abscess in her stomach.
“After a week, it was so painful nobody could touch it, and I could hardly move,” Lanni recalled. “It was unbearable.”
Her pain brought her to the hospital, where she was taken to emergency surgery.
“All the medical staff I saw said they’d never seen anything like this…I said to the surgeon, ‘It feels like a baked potato’, and he said, ‘It’s worse, it’s like a small cabbage,” Lanni remembered.
Lanni was left with a 1.5-inch scar. Her post-op care required her to have the wound packed and dressed for five weeks, “It was so painful when they touched it — like hundreds of bee stings.”
Her weeks-long recovery meant Lanni, a child support worker, was out of work. Having signed a consent form that listed abscesses as a possible side effect, Lanni was ineligible for compensation from the salon or the makers of Aqualyx.
“I researched the treatment online for over a month and didn’t see abscess listed as a side effect. I think the form I signed was much too general,” Lanni explained. “The practitioner said the worst that could happen was that the treatment wouldn’t work. I took her word for that.”
UK Dr. Kasim Usmani, who specializes in injectables and cosmetic dermatology, noted that like any medical treatment, there are risks to fat-dissolving injections.
“It is important to go to a medically qualified professional who understands the anatomy of the area being injected, as well as the correct depth of product placement and amount of product used,” Usmani advised.
Usmani reports that many fat-dissolving injections are purchased online and contain questionable ingredients that can lead to adverse reactions.
“These complications are also present with approved, safer products such as Aqualyx but is greatly reduced when done in a controlled, medical environment by a qualified medical professional,” Usmani said.
Per SWNS, the salon Lanni visited has since closed. The makers of Aqualyx did not respond to a SWNS request for comment.
Out of work with mounting debt, Lanni says she had to rely on $3,000 in savings to survive while she recovered. The botched procedure has taken its toll physically and emotionally.
“The whole experience has been extremely distressing. I could accept a reaction that needed a course of antibiotics, but an abscess that size and emergency surgery is not OK,” she shared.
Kybella, which targets chin fat, is the only fat-dissolving drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It has not been evaluated for use in other areas of the body.
However, unapproved fat-dissolving injections are being used in clinics and med spas across the US. These include Aqualyx, approved for use in the UK since 2012.
In December, the FDA warned of potential side effects of unapproved fat-dissolving injections, such as permanent scars, serious infections, skin deformities, cysts and deep, painful knots.
The agency cautioned against seeking treatments from unlicensed personnel and urged those seeking fat-dissolving procedures not to self-inject at home due to the risk of infections or other serious complications.
Obesity medicine physician Dr. Dan Maselli, of True You Weight Loss in Atlanta, told NBC News that the “patient might not know what they’re injecting into” if they attempt to treat themselves.
“They might think it’s fat tissue,” he explained in December. “It could be a muscle tissue. It could be your blood vessel, or it could be around a nerve.”
Fitness influencer Beatriz Amma says she was left with a flesh-eating illness and severe scarring after receiving unapproved fat-dissolving injections.
Lanni hopes her abdominal ordeal will serve as a cautionary tale to others, “I’d advise people to be aware that this treatment can have severe consequences — think very carefully before having it, and only go to an aesthetician that has been recommended by someone you know.”
She added: “Don’t wait the recommended time before seeking medical assistance, and if possible, start taking antibiotics before the treatment.”
