Tummy Tuck for Massive Weight Loss Patients

So many patients are undergoing weight loss surgery that one of the fastest growing areas of plastic surgery is removing excess skin.

It happens like this:

For many reasons – inactivity, bad eating habits, genetics – some people gain 100 to 150 and more pounds. Such a huge weight gain stretches the skin of the arm, legs, stomach, chest, neck and face far beyond its ability to rebound.

After weight loss surgery – like via a Lap Band – the result is still “plus sized,” skin hanging in sheets.

That’s a problem because the movement in almost any exercise causes the excess skin to painfully flap and rub against still other sheets of skin. That, in turn, often creates pain, infections and embarrassment.

Lap Band doctors have reported patients with enough loose skin hanging from their stomachs to reach the knees.

Due to massive weight loss (MWL), one of the most popular body shaping procedures to remove that excess skin is the tummy tuck, or abdominoplasty.

Plastic surgeons in Pittsburgh studied 490 MWL patients who had tummy tucks.

A regular tummy tuck just won’t remove enough skin. So the doctors and patients can choose from:

* A circumferential, or belt, abdominoplasty

The scar goes all the way around the body.

* A Fleur-de-lis abdominoplasty

The scar — only on the abdomen — is shaped like an inverted “T”.

Because the scars are longer and a few more complications could exist, the plastic surgeons, working at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, studied the results of 154 patients who had the Fleur-de-lis version.

Results? The doctors found the overall abdominal complication rate of all tummy tuck patients is about the same as the Fleur-de-lis group only.

The usual, expected complications in abdominoplasty include:

* Infections along the incision
* Seroma, a pocket of clear fluid that sometimes develops after surgery.
* The incision breaking open, known in medicine as dehiscence
* Being male is also a risk factor.

Concluded the surgeons:

* Fleur-de-lis can do a better job of removing excess skin on MWL patients who are left with a lot of hanging, loose skin on the upper abdomen.
* Complication rates are about the same as with traditional tummy tucks that use only one incision along the lower abdomen.