Topeka ? A state judge plans to decide this week whether Kansas regulators can keep cosmetic “body shaping” clinics from injecting patients with chemicals to melt away their body fat.

The legal dispute in Shawnee County District Court pits Fig, a St. Louis company, against the State Board of Healing Arts. Fig provides its treatment, Lipodissolve, at 15 clinics in seven states, including one in Overland Park. The board licenses and regulates doctors, and it is the first regulatory board in the nation to restrict fat-dissolving shots.

The board approved a new regulation last month prohibiting clinics from giving patients injections of fat-dissolving chemicals unless their doctors are participating in clinical investigations. The regulation was scheduled to take effect Friday. Fig responded with a lawsuit seeking to overturn the board’s decision.

Fig contends it would be forced to close its Overland Park clinic and refund up to $12 million in payments to patients whose treatments wouldn’t be finished.

The board argues that it is protecting patients from potential problems caused by an unproven drug. The combination of substances in Lipodissolve hasn’t been approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Confusion arose about whether the board’s regulation will take effect Friday as planned. In an emergency meeting Monday, board members agreed they wanted more public comment, and its executive director said the rule would be suspended.

But when Fig and the board later went to court, the board’s attorney said the regulation still would take effect. Judge David Bruns reached the same conclusion and said he hoped to rule Thursday.