Cosmetic Surgery Body Contouring - Plastic Surgery
About forty-five million Americans diet each year and Americans spend approximately one to $2 billion a year on weight loss programs. It is believed that consumers spend about $30 billion per year trying to lose weight or prevent weight gain, and 55% of Americans are actively trying to maintain or lose weight. In the last five years weight loss surgery has experienced a tremendous resurgence. Over fifty thousand patients in the United States will undergo some form of gastric bypass surgery during 2005, and the positive effects of this surgery are immeasurable. The health benefits of massive weight loss are numerous and profound.
However, after a patient experiences massive weight loss, the body skin is not able to retract to the smaller size of the body underneath. This results in large pendulous hanging breasts, significant excess underarm skin (sometimes known as bat wings), and significant lower abdominal skin and laxity that causes rashes, impairs the ability to wear normal clothes and sometimes even daily activity. In the face, this excess skin often leads to significant signs of aging when the skin is no longer able to retrace following massive weight loss. Body Contouring is a safe and effective group of procedures that can help a patient drastically improve their appearance!
Body Contouring Statistics
In 2004, nearly 17,000 people in the United States underwent what is called an expended abdominoplasty, a procedure used to eliminate the mid body excess skin and fat. This represents a 9% increase from the year before and nearly a 50% increase from five years ago. Breast surgery, upper arm surgery and thigh lift surgery account for nearly forty thousand operations and this represents a nearly 50% increase from just the year before. More and more Americans are discovering the incredible benefits of body contouring after massive weight loss.Body Contouring - Are You a Candidate?
The best candidates for body contouring are people who have undergone massive weight loss and are dissatisfied with the appearance of their body, are in general good health, and have realistic expectations of what the procedure can accomplish.
Body Contouring - Plastic Surgery Procedures & Risks
Body contouring is a group of complimentary cosmetic procedures that can reshape your entire figure into a shape of your own choosing. Often times when a person is dissatisfied with their shape one or more procedures can alleviate their discomfort and provide them with the aesthetically pleasing figure they desire. Body contouring is also a safe and effective way to combat the unsightly sagging skin that often accompanies massive weight loss.In order to reshape the body, plastic surgeons in consultation with their patients will generally focus on a few common areas that many people often find less than attractive as the years go by. For example:
- Sagging or drooping breasts can often be overcome through a breast reduction and breast lift.
- If the skin on your arms is not as toned as the muscle underneath, an armlift or "brachioplasty" can correct unsightly droopage.
- Sometimes over the years the stomach can take on a rounded or flabby shape, and no manner of sit-ups will help, so many people elect for an abdominoplasty or tummy tuck.
- Despite the best exercise and diet regimens many people suffer a loss of tone in their buttocks. Fortunately a buttock lift can restore the tone and shape lost over the years.
- As people age, the skin on their upper thighs begins to droop out of proportion with the rest of their skin tone, so a thigh lift can often correct this unsightly mishap of genetics.
- Finally, in order to achieve an all around sense of proportion, many people elect to remove stubborn fat deposits through liposuction. This procedure restores the characteristic figure and curves many of us lose over the years.
Liposuction and Treatment of the Upper Body
Patients with massive weight loss are often left with large pendulous breasts both for men and women as well as significantly redundant skin in the upper arms, sometimes down even past the elbow. Treatment of this condition involves removal of this extra skin and repositioning of the breasts in a more natural position. More often than not, a breast reduction is desired. This results in is a much more attractive appearing smaller breast that better fits the person's body size and image. And then finally, oftentimes when patients have had massive weight loss, their breasts have lost all volume and they are left with essentially hanging skin. In this instance, oftentimes, mastipecy augmentation is indicated where implants are placed to restore the volume and the mastipecy procedure restores the skin envelope and nipple areola position. Oftentimes, the brachioplasty and breast surgery are combined into a single operation to optimize the overall results.
Treatment of the Thighs
Treatment of the thighs is also very common for those with massive weight loss. The extra skin fat hanging from the groin area often rubs between people's legs causing chafing and blistering and often skin rashes. A medial thigh lift removes this redundant skin and fat and places the incision either in the groin crease or in a vertical line down the medial aspect of the thigh. Oftentimes, these two incisions are combined for an improved removal of skin and fat. This procedure can be done under a general anesthetic or an epidural, and it takes approximately three hours. The patients generally spend a night or two in the hospital following the procedure and can return to their normal activities in about three weeks.
Following massive weight loss, patient's faces generally show much more age than is appropriate for their real age. A rhitidectomy surgery to rejuvenate the face and try and eliminate the stigma of a past life. Procedures to turn back the clock would include such things as neck suspensions, face lifts as well as brow lifting and blephorplasty type procedures. These procedures are generally performed in an office based surgery setting and take anywhere from a couple of hours to six or seven hours depending on the complexity of the procedure. Patients generally go home the same night and are back to their normal levels of activity in the following two weeks. Patients are generally very pleased with the results and happy that they have undergone the procedures.
Where Body Contouring Plastic Surgery Performed
It is often performed in either an office based surgery center or a hospital. Patients generally require one to two nights in the hospital following the procedure and the procedure can often be combined with other procedures although it usually is done with only additional minor procedures given the large nature of this surgical procedure itself.
Anesthesia and Body Contouring Surgery
This operation takes anywhere between four and eight hours and is performed under either general anesthesia or epidural.
Planning for Body Contouring Surgery
You will most likely meet your surgeon for initial consultation to discuss your desires for massive weight loss related surgery. During that time the surgeon and you will come to a conclusion of what surgeries are required, and you will go over a discussion of the risks and benefits of those surgeries. You will then have a second appointment, which is called a pre-operation appointment, whereby you will be carefully examined and the details of the surgery reviewed one more time.
Preparing for Body Contouring Surgery
Before the surgery, you will given prescriptions for postoperative medications and instructions of what time to show up and where for your surgery. On the morning of surgery it would be wise that you wear loose fitting clothing, button-down type shirts so you don't have to lift your arms up after surgery to get into your shirt as well as pajama type bottoms and slippers are also a good idea.
How Body Contouring Surgery is Performed
On the morning of surgery you will show up at the designated location which is most likely an outpatient surgery center. You will then be taken to a preoperative holding area where most likely an IV catheter will be placed and you will change your clothes and prepare for going into the operating room. Your surgeon will meet you preoperatively and shortly thereafter, you will be taken to the operating room where the procedure will start. You will likely be placed under a general anesthetic or given some sedative medicine and the procedure will begin.
Recovery from a Body Contouring Procedure
It is important that you have someone who will bring you to the Surgery Center, and if your procedure will be performed as an outpatient, to take you home and spend the first few nights with you following surgery. You will likely return to your physician's office on the first couple of days following surgery to check and ensure that the wounds are healing up appropriately and then will continue to follow-up according to that surgeon's postoperative protocol. It is important after surgery to wear the appropriate garments and that provides support for the soft tissues as they heal.
Body Contouring Questions & Answers
Why do people require surgery following massive weight loss?
As the body has gained weight, the skin stretches out. This skin, however, doesn't have the same response when the underlying fat is removed. What then results is the elasticity of the skin is gone and the body is left with multiple areas of redundant skin that causes rashes, impairs the activities of daily living and at a minimum is quite unsightly. Sometimes patients feel worse aesthetically in their new bodies than their old and that is where the role of plastic surgery comes in.
What is the general sequence of procedures in body contouring?
For the typical person with massive weight loss, the surgical management of this condition generally is divided into stages. Those stages are the treatment of the body, the treatment of the medial thighs and the treatment of the breast and arms, and finally possible treatment of the face. Oftentimes, some of these stages can be combined together. Depending on your medical condition, your ability to tolerate surgery and your personal desires, you and your surgeon will have to come up with a plan which best meets your needs.
What are some of the risks of Body Contouring?
Every type of surgery carries some form of risk. Speak to your board certified plastic surgeon about the potential risks of eyelid surgery before you decide on your procedure.
What can I expect during Body Contouring surgery?
On the morning of surgery you will show up at the designated location which is most likely an outpatient surgery center. You will then be taken to a preoperative holding area where most likely an IV catheter will be placed and you will change your clothes and prepare for going into the operating room. Your surgeon will meet you preoperatively and shortly thereafter, you will be taken to the operating room where the procedure will start. You will likely be placed under a general anesthetic or given some sedative medicine and the procedure will begin.
What can I expect after the Body Contouring operation?
It is important that you have someone who will bring you to the Surgery Center, and if your procedure will be performed as an outpatient, to take you home and spend the first few nights with you following surgery. You will likely return to your physician's office on the first couple of days following surgery to check and ensure that the wounds are healing up appropriately and then will continue to follow-up according to that surgeon's postoperative protocol. It is important after surgery to wear the appropriate garments and that provides support for the soft tissues as they heal.
How important is it to pick the right surgeon for my body contouring?
Surgery for the massive weight loss patient population is rapidly becoming one of the biggest fields in plastic surgery. It is extremely important that you find a qualified surgeon who is experienced in treating this condition as these are very large surgeries and need to be performed in experienced hands. It is important to ask your surgeon whether or not they are certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. Surgeons so certified have met stringent requirements of both written and oral examinations and adhere to the high standards of the American Society of Plastic Surgery.
