Body lifts and skin reductions are designed to help patients who have lost a lot of weight. This can happen due to diet and exercise or gastric bypass surgery.
With weight loss, the skin retracts to a limited and variable degree. These patients are much healthier but carry around a lot of redundant skin, which is in the way of physical activities and can cause heat rashes, particularly in the summer months. Conservative measures with lasers, radiofrequency or ultrasound will not even begin to address the degree of skin excess. The only effective treatment of loose, saggy skin is to directly remove the excess skin and hide the incisions as best as possible.
Body lifts remove the excess skin and suspend the saggy skin to improve contour. Often this requires a circumferential removal of skin around the waist. These types of procedures are done under general anesthesia. Some procedures require overnight observation in the hospital for the patient’s safety. Patients who lose 100 pounds often have excess skin in multiple areas. They can benefit from several of these procedures. For their safety the procedures should be spaced approximately four to six months apart. Sometimes the smaller procedures can be combined, such as brachioplasty and breast lift.
Body contouring following major weight loss is individualized to your specific anatomy and goals.
Body contouring following major weight loss is individualized to your specific anatomy and goals. The procedures necessary to achieve these goals will be defined in a plan designed along with the order of the various procedures. Common skin reduction procedures include:
- Lower Body Lift is a circumferential incision at the level of the waist to resect the redundant skin. It also suspends the lateral thigh and buttocks to reduce sagging in these areas. This type of surgery generally requires an overnight observation at the hospital.
- Medial Thigh Lift removes excess medial thigh skin with an incision hidden near the genitalia.
- Brachioplasty resects sagging skin of the upper arms with an incision in the axilla that extends down the inner surface of the arm to near the elbow. This is commonly done as an outpatient and often is combined with surgery on the breasts.