You Lost the Weight. Now Lose the Sagging Skin.

Body Contouring Surgery

1) Body contouring is a group of procedures that patients will undergo typically after weight loss surgery. It's not one procedure, it can be many different procedures.

2) These can be abdominoplasty's or panniculectomies, that's removing skin from the stomach area. There's brachioplasty which is removing skin from the upper arm area. There are thigh lifts, which remove skin from the medial and upper thigh. Those are the most common procedures. Sometimes if the patient has extra skin that continues around their back, we can do what's called a lower body lift.

3)that really tightens and contours their waist.

4)Although patients may have multiple areas they want to approach, we may not be able to do them all at once. Depending on the time of the surgery and the amount of tissue excised, it may be one area, or two, but usually not more than that. Unfortunately, they may require multiple trips to the operating room to get their desired result and alleviate all the problems that they're having.

5)these procedures are not cosmetic. These aren't done for people who just want to look a little bit better in their swimsuit. These are for real quality of life issues and these things weigh both emotionally, psychologically, as well as physiologically, like I said. They can cause infections, visits to the hospital if this excess skin isn't taken care of.

Am I a Candidate?

6)For most patients to qualify under insurance for body contouring surgery, they usually have to had weight loss either through surgery, or through diet and exercise of at least 100 pounds. And then once they have lost that weight, it needs to be stable for approximately six months to a year.

7)Documentation is the key. But if we can demonstrate that they've had a long standing problem with recurrent skin infections and rashes, then typically insurance will cover these procedures.

8)We don't want to remove skin when people are actively losing weight, as they may develop more excess skin as their weight stabilizes at that lower level. We also want to make sure that they aren't smokers. If they've had bariatric surgery, they're following their post-bariatric diet, getting lots of protein so they have good wound healing. And then obviously with any surgery that's performed under general anesthesia, we have to make sure that they have no issues related to their heart or lungs.

Risks

9)There can be significant risk involved with any surgery, especially with body contouring surgery. If we talk about your stomach it's about two to three hours worth of surgery under general anesthesia. There is a risk of anesthesia with any surgery. There's a risk of bleeding and infection.

Results

10)Results after body contouring surgery, can last a long time. The most important thing is that the patient maintains a healthy weight and lifestyle. If someone gains or loses a lot of weight, then of course their results will change with that weight loss, or weight gain. But if their weight stays fairly stable, these should last years. Obviously all of our skin changes with time as we age, so they're not permanent but they should last a long time

11)It's very important, and I do stress with all my patients that they maintain good protein intake after surgery to help promote wound healing.

12)You have incisions that have to heal and that can take several weeks. You'll have pain with surgery, that may take weeks to months to completely go away.  These are invasive procedures but the benefits usually outweigh the risks of surgery for most patients because it does affect their lifestyle. Patients are happy that they've lost this amount of weight, but still they may find that they don't fit into the clothing that they want to wear. Or it's still difficult to go to the gym because they get rashes and infections afterwards, so as part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and part of maintaining their healthy weight loss, these are important procedures. For most patients, even though they are invasive and they require several weeks of downtime and several hours under anesthesia, the risk is worth the benefit.