Do fat-dissolving injections work?

It depends entirely which one. Licensed deoxycholic acid for submental fat has pooled randomised evidence — patients were more than twice as likely to improve on the clinician scale, and eight times as likely to reach a 10% volume reduction, than on placebo. The compounded mixtures sold as 윤곽주사 are a different matter: South Korea's health technology agency reviewed 38 studies and reported that most could not confirm a long-term effect, with no meaningful difference against placebo or no treatment.

What is 윤곽주사?

A compounded injection mixed in the clinic, usually described as a cocktail. NECA's review lists deoxycholic acid, choline alfoscerate, aminophylline, steroids, caffeine, hyaluronidase, carnitine and verapamil among the agents used — and states that the drug types, mixing ratios, doses and injection schedules have never been clearly established.

Is Kybella available in South Korea?

No. Allergan's Kybella (벨카이라), the first product of its kind approved anywhere, was withdrawn from the South Korean market in 2020. The two products licensed here now are 브이올렛, approved in 2021, and 벨라콜린, approved in 2024.

How reliable is the evidence for the licensed version?

Reasonably strong in design and worth reading with one caveat. The 2023 meta-analysis pooled five randomised trials in 1,837 patients and found consistent benefit — but the reviewers note that all five were funded by the manufacturers, and call for trials that are not. They rate the certainty of the evidence as low to moderate.

What are the side effects?

For licensed deoxycholic acid, the common ones are frequent rather than dangerous: against placebo, numbness was 13 times more likely, fibrosis roughly 10 times, and nodules about 6 times. For compounded injections, NECA also documents rare but serious events — bacterial infection, skin necrosis, foreign-body granuloma, drug urticaria, and acute toxic reactions requiring intensive care.

What should I ask before agreeing?

Ask for the product name and whether it is a licensed drug or a mixture prepared in the clinic. If it is a mixture, ask what is in it and in what proportion — NECA's finding is that no such standard exists. Then look the name up on the ministry's drug portal yourself.

Treatments · also called 윤곽주사, 지방분해주사, injection lipolysis

Fat-dissolving injections: two licensed products, and everything else

South Korea's health technology agency reviewed 38 studies and could not confirm long-term effect. Only two submental fat injections are licensed here.

Author: Aesthetics Korea Editorial Team
Medical review: Reviewed by 2 doctorsSee methodology
Published: 8 September 2026
Last updated: 8 September 2026
Last reviewed: —5 min read

Short answer

There are two very different things sold under this name. Deoxycholic acid licensed for submental fat has real randomised evidence — though every trial behind it was industry-funded. The compounded "cocktail" injections sold far more widely have no fixed formula, and South Korea's own health technology agency reviewed 38 studies and could not confirm a long-term effect. Only two products are licensed here for submental fat.

Key facts

Licensed in South Korea: Two products for submental fat — 브이올렛 (2021) and 벨라콜린 (2024), both deoxycholic acid
Not available: Kybella (벨카이라) was withdrawn from the South Korean market in 2020
What most people are sold: 윤곽주사 — an off-label compounded mixture with no established formula, ratio or dose
Government review: NECA reviewed 38 studies in 2024 and could not confirm long-term effect
Rare serious harms: Infection, skin necrosis, foreign-body granuloma, acute toxic reaction needing intensive care
The question to ask: Is this a licensed drug, or a mixture? Ask for the product name

This is the whole page in one distinction, and almost no clinic menu makes it.

A licensed drug. Deoxycholic acid, approved by the ministry for fat under the chin, with a fixed formulation, a fixed dose, and randomised trials behind it.

A compounded mixture. Prepared in the clinic, sold as 윤곽주사, containing whatever the clinic has chosen to put in it. No licence, no fixed formula, and no established dose.

Both are injections. Both are described as dissolving fat. They are not the same product, and the evidence for one is not evidence for the other.

What is licensed in South Korea

Two products, both deoxycholic acid, both for submental fat: 브이올렛, approved in 2021, and 벨라콜린, approved in 2024.

Kybella — 벨카이라, the first such product approved anywhere — left the South Korean market in 2020. If a clinic offers you Kybella here, ask what they are actually injecting.

Anything else offered for fat anywhere else on the face or body is off-label at best.

What the evidence says for the licensed version

A 2023 meta-analysis pooled five randomised trials in 1,837 patients. Against placebo, at the 2 mg/cm² dose:

Clinician-rated improvement of at least one point — RR 2.28 (95% CI 2.04–2.54)
Clinician-rated improvement of at least two points — RR 5.30 (3.85–7.30)
Patient-rated improvement of at least one point — RR 2.02 (1.83–2.22)
Volume reduction of 10% or more — RR 8.43 (5.73–12.43)

That is a real effect on a small, defined problem.

Two things to hold alongside it. The side effects are common, if minor: numbness was 13 times more likely than on placebo, fibrosis about 10 times, nodules about 6 times. And all five trials were funded by the manufacturers — the reviewers say so themselves, rate the certainty as low to moderate, and call for trials that are not industry-sponsored.

What South Korea's own agency found about the rest

This is the part worth travelling with.

NECA — 한국보건의료연구원, the national health technology assessment agency — reassessed fat-dissolving injections in June 2024, reviewing 38 studies.

Its findings, in its own framing:

Most studies could not confirm a long-term effect, with no meaningful difference against placebo or no treatment.
For the compounded injections, the drug types, mixing ratios, doses and injection schedules have never been clearly established. The agents in use include deoxycholic acid, choline alfoscerate, aminophylline, steroids, caffeine, hyaluronidase, carnitine and verapamil.
Rare but serious events are documented: bacterial infection, skin necrosis, foreign-body granuloma, drug urticaria, and acute toxic reactions requiring intensive care.

Read the second point carefully. It is not that the mixture is badly chosen. It is that there is no standard to choose against — so what you receive depends on the clinic, and no two are obliged to match.

What this changes for a visitor

You are unlikely to be handed a product name unprompted, and "지방분해주사" on a price list tells you nothing about which of the two categories you are in.

So ask, in this order:

Is this a licensed drug or a mixture prepared here?
If licensed — which product, and is it 브이올렛 or 벨라콜린?
If a mixture — what is in it, and in what proportion? NECA's finding is that no standard exists, so the answer is specific to this clinic.
What area is being treated? The licensed evidence is for under the chin. Elsewhere is off-label.
Look the product name up on the ministry's drug portal.

What it will not do

Neither version is a weight-loss treatment, and neither substitutes for surgery on a larger volume of fat. The licensed evidence is for a small, defined pocket under the chin, measured in one-point improvements on a five-point scale. A clinic proposing it for a body contour is proposing something the trials did not test.

If the concern is a soft jawline rather than a fat pad, that is usually a tightening or repositioning question, and belongs to a different page.

The bottom line

Two products are licensed in South Korea for submental fat, both deoxycholic acid, and Kybella is not one of them — it left the market in 2020. The licensed version has genuine randomised evidence with frequent minor side effects and an acknowledged industry-funding problem across every trial. The 윤곽주사 sold far more widely is a compounded mixture with no established formula, which South Korea's own health technology agency reviewed across 38 studies without confirming a long-term effect, and for which it documents rare cases of necrosis, granuloma and toxic reactions needing intensive care. Ask which one you are being offered.

Frequently asked questions

Do fat-dissolving injections work?: It depends entirely which one. Licensed deoxycholic acid for submental fat has pooled randomised evidence — patients were more than twice as likely to improve on the clinician scale, and eight times as likely to reach a 10% volume reduction, than on placebo. The compounded mixtures sold as 윤곽주사 are a different matter: South Korea's health technology agency reviewed 38 studies and reported that most could not confirm a long-term effect, with no meaningful difference against placebo or no treatment.
What is 윤곽주사?: A compounded injection mixed in the clinic, usually described as a cocktail. NECA's review lists deoxycholic acid, choline alfoscerate, aminophylline, steroids, caffeine, hyaluronidase, carnitine and verapamil among the agents used — and states that the drug types, mixing ratios, doses and injection schedules have never been clearly established.
Is Kybella available in South Korea?: No. Allergan's Kybella (벨카이라), the first product of its kind approved anywhere, was withdrawn from the South Korean market in 2020. The two products licensed here now are 브이올렛, approved in 2021, and 벨라콜린, approved in 2024.
How reliable is the evidence for the licensed version?: Reasonably strong in design and worth reading with one caveat. The 2023 meta-analysis pooled five randomised trials in 1,837 patients and found consistent benefit — but the reviewers note that all five were funded by the manufacturers, and call for trials that are not. They rate the certainty of the evidence as low to moderate.
What are the side effects?: For licensed deoxycholic acid, the common ones are frequent rather than dangerous: against placebo, numbness was 13 times more likely, fibrosis roughly 10 times, and nodules about 6 times. For compounded injections, NECA also documents rare but serious events — bacterial infection, skin necrosis, foreign-body granuloma, drug urticaria, and acute toxic reactions requiring intensive care.
What should I ask before agreeing?: Ask for the product name and whether it is a licensed drug or a mixture prepared in the clinic. If it is a mixture, ask what is in it and in what proportion — NECA's finding is that no such standard exists. Then look the name up on the ministry's drug portal yourself.

Medical evidence

Systematic review2023n = 1837
Efficacy, safety, and potential industry bias in using deoxycholic acid for submental fat reduction — a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials
"Based on a low to moderate certainty of the evidence, the meta-analyses showed positive effects regarding the efficacy of deoxycholic acid, regardless of the dose… All studies showed an industry sponsorship bias. Further randomized clinical trials not sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry should be encouraged."

Sources

Listed in the order they are used. Source class follows the methodology.

1.Efficacy, safety, and potential industry bias in using deoxycholic acid for submental fat reduction, Clinics (São Paulo), October 2023Peer-reviewed researchaccessed 2026-09-08Five randomised trials, 1,837 patients. At 2 mg/cm², clinician-rated improvement of at least one point RR 2.28 (95% CI 2.04–2.54) and at least two points RR 5.30 (3.85–7.30); patient-rated one point RR 2.02 (1.83–2.22); volume reduction of 10% or more RR 8.43 (5.73–12.43). Adverse events against placebo: numbness RR 13.09, fibrosis RR 9.74, nodules RR 5.66, pain RR 2.38, swelling RR 2.22. All five trials were funded by the manufacturers.
2.지방분해주사 의료기술재평가 (Health technology reassessment — fat-dissolving injection), 한국보건의료연구원 (NECA), report NECA-R-23-001-41, published June 2024Government / public bodyaccessed 2026-09-08South Korea's national health technology assessment agency reviewed 38 studies. Reported that most studies could not confirm a long-term effect and found no meaningful difference against placebo or no treatment; that the drug types, mixing ratios, doses and injection schedules for compounded injections have never been clearly established; and that rare serious events include bacterial infection, skin necrosis, foreign-body granuloma, drug urticaria and acute toxic reactions requiring intensive care.
3.NECA “지방분해주사, 효과 낮고 드물지만 부작용 심각”, 청년의사 (Docdocdoc), 18 June 2024Pressaccessed 2026-09-08Accessible reporting of the NECA reassessment, quoting the agency directly on the absence of established formulations and listing the agents found in compounded injections.
4.지방분해주사시장, 데옥시콜산으로 재편? 정부硏, 오프라벨 주사제 효과 '갸웃', 팜이데일리, 25 June 2024Pressaccessed 2026-09-08Reports that only two products are licensed in South Korea for submental fat reduction — Daewoong's 브이올렛 (2021) and LG Chem's 벨라콜린 (2024), both deoxycholic acid — and that Allergan's 벨카이라 (Kybella) withdrew from the South Korean market in 2020.
5.의약품안전나라 (Drug Safety Korea), Ministry of Food and Drug SafetyGovernment / public bodyaccessed 2026-09-08Where a licensed injectable appears under its Korean product name. A mixture prepared in the clinic will not be here, because it is not a product.

Concerns it addresses

Sagging skin: tightening, repositioning, and telling them apart

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