Tributes paid to the co-inventor of modern liposuction, Dr Pierre Fournier

Dr Pierre Fournier, credited as a co-inventor of modern-day liposuction, has died, with tributes being paid to him on the social media platform, LinkedIn.

The world-renowned Parisian aesthetic surgeon was acknowledged as a generation-defining mentor in his field, and was dubbed the ‘founder of modern aesthetics’. He passed away on February 24 2023.

“[Fournier] began his medical career from quite humble beginnings; after serving in the French army in World War II, he opened a small clinic in the suburbs of the French capital,” recalled Dr Patrick Treacy in his LinkedIn tribute to the late aesthetic surgeon. “By offering lower prices than most other surgeons in central Paris, clients soon started to line up at his door.”

Although not the first to deliver a liposuction procedure, Fournier, alongside the French plastic surgeon Yves-Gerard Illouz, built upon the work of Giorgio and Arpad Fishcer to popularise and improve the cannula-based approach to liposuction. In the 1980s, Fournier suggested the use of the local anaesthetic lidocaine to make the procedure safer and was known for widely advocating and lecturing on liposuction technique.

Several aesthetic doctors took to LinkedIn to acknowledge the news of Fournier’s passing and shared anecdotes about his impact on their lives and careers.

“So sad to hear about the passing of Dr Pierre Fournier, who has rightly been attributed the title of ‘founder of modern aesthetics’,” posted Treacy. “I met Pierre for the first time in Miami in January 2004 at the American Academy of Aesthetic Medicine… At [that] stage, he was still practising as a septuagenarian but came across as a charming gentleman; in the words of an interviewer: ‘his mind and wit as sharp as the instruments he used’. During later IMCAS conference sessions in Paris, he would often invite me to his house in Paris, where his wife gave a beautiful piano recital. He once presented me with an original framed copy of one of his older 1960 lectures, The Concept of Beauty, which I proudly hung back on the walls of my clinic in Dublin.”

“Pierre was a brilliant doctor and a true gentleman,” echoed Dr Steven Victor. “He was my mentor for liposuction. I still have my 6mm cannulae he gave me as a graduation present. We operated together in Paris and New York and every time I was with him I learned many pearls and new techniques. He should be honoured and his teaching live on in many, many doctors! May he rest in peace.”

The plastic surgeon Marc Abecassis also posted condolences and thanks, with the quotes below translated from their original French. He said: “thank you teacher” I learned to see straight and far because from the start I stood on the shoulders of a giant: Pierre Fournier. A world-renowned Parisian plastic and aesthetic surgeon, doctor Fournier has been the mentor of entire generations of doctors. Many of us remember his lessons at his office, on Boulevard de Strasbourg, where he taught with passion and always with a unique sense of humour, his principles, his methods and his tricks. He was a world precursor of Liposuction and inventor of syringe liposuction which is at the origin of all its modern applications.”

Abecassis added “I remember that when my father died, he was one of the first people to whom I announced this and he said to me: 'someone is really dead when you no longer remember him'. So, dear colleagues, dear friends, we who have worked with him, think of Dr Fournier for a moment… and every time we put our gloves on to perform a lipo…”

The Aesthetic Medicine team would also like to extend their condolences to the family and friends of Dr Pierre Fournier.