The Columbus physician added laser liposuction procedures to his repertoire some two and a half years ago. Even in a down economy, the procedures now take some 10 to 15 percent of his schedule as he continues in full-time OB/GYN practice.

“We have a lot of patients in my practice that had extra adipose tissue they couldn’t get rid of, that was either genetic or estrogen-stimulated,” he said. “I realized, nobody’s doing this here and this could be something we could offer them.”

Childrey traveled to Coral Springs, Fla., to take a course in laser and ultrasound liposuction techniques under Dwight C. Reynolds, MD.

“I was impressed with what you could do while the patients were awake and under local anesthesia,” Childrey said. “The downtime is minimum; they’re back at work in two or three days. The procedure is very impressive in how they respond.”

Today, Childrey offers Lipotherme™ laser lipolysis, which employs a tiny instrument to liquefy fat cells and remove them with gentle suction. He also offers VASER® Lipo, an ultrasound-assisted liposuction procedure.

In business as Eden Body Sculpting, the liposuction practice is housed in a separate location from Childrey’s OB/GYN practice and serves both men and women. Eden Medi-Spa and Laser Center, an outpatient surgical center near Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle, provides surgical suites outside the hospital.

“We’re not putting people to sleep and not using IVs,” Childrey said. “It’s just local anesthetic and sometimes a mild sedative.”

Childrey shares the outpatient space with oral and maxillofacial surgeon John Griffin, DMD, who launched the spa to provide cosmetic treatments like Botox and Juvéderm injections, as well as traditional spa services like massages, manicures and facials. Liposuction procedures added a new dimension to the spa’s offerings.

Childrey had been in private practice in Columbus since 1986. He came to Mississippi to join the staff of the U.S. Air Force Hospital at Columbus Air Force Base, where he served for four years.

A native of Atlanta, Childrey earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Emory University and a medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta.

He completed an internship and residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of South Alabama Medical Center in Mobile, and is board certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Childrey is a member of the Lowndes County Medical Association, the Prairie Medical Society and the Mississippi State Medical Society. He is a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and an associate of the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery.

At Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle, he served as chief of staff during the mid-1990s and has served six terms as OB/GYN chairman.

In weighing whether to add cosmetic procedures to his practice, Childrey spoke to other surgeons and OB/GYN physicians around the southeast who had made similar additions.

“Physicians from many specialties are beginning to get involved in the cosmetic-surgery field,” he said. “If you’re a general surgeon or an OB/GYN who’s been operating on the abdomen, there’s not a lot to it from the standpoint of new things to learn.”

Childrey had experience performing abdominoplasties during his training and residency, on larger patients for whom the pelvic areas were difficult to reach.

He also had experience working with laser technology from earlier in his career. He had trained to use lasers including the CO2, ARGON, KTP/532 and Nd:YAG models for OB/GYN procedures during the late 1980s. Although laser procedures have since largely been replaced by laparoscopic ones, the same principles applied.

At the same time, though, Childrey is careful to delineate the difference between his new offerings and the broader practice of a plastic surgeon.

“I’m not doing reconstructive procedures or breast reductions or skin flaps,” he said. “I’m just contouring and shaping people’s areas of extra fat.”

Many of the liposuction cases take as long as two to three hours of surgery. Childrey has had some cases take up to five and a half hours, for patients wanting the procedure in the arms, abdomen and thighs all at once.

“We don’t do that anymore,” he said. “I’m pretty tuckered out by the end of it.”

Despite the hard work, Childrey finds the procedures rewarding in different ways from his regular OB/GYN practice.

“You have an immediate result, and a delayed result,” he said. “People come back and they’re pleased, and their self-esteem is way up. It’s fun to make people happy.”

The cosmetic work also sees more ups and downs than Childrey’s OB/GYN practice, particularly given that such procedures are not covered by insurance and depend upon discretionary income. It’s also seasonal, with demand picking up in January through June as people anticipate swimsuit season during the summer months.

Assisting Childrey in the cosmetic cases is his wife, Pamela, a registered nurse, as well as a second RN who is ACLS certified and has many years’ experience, he said. On the occasion when an OB/GYN emergency arises during a cosmetic case, Childrey is able to hurry over to the hospital just a block away and take care of that patient while nurses visit with the cosmetic patient.

Outside of work, Childrey enjoys golf and flying as well as fishing and hunting. He and his wife have four grown children and three grandchildren.

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