Body Contouring Surgery
Body contouring after significant weight loss can be due to diet and exercise, medications such as semaglutides or bariatric surgery such as gastric sleeves, bands or bypasses. In these situations, weight loss is more than usual and often faster than usual. It is also often from quite a high starting weight. This means that there is usually a lot of loose skin which can fall into overhangs and folds which causes problems with irritation and hygiene in the creases and folds, exercise, comfort, clothing and appearance. Several areas of the body may be affected but abdomen, thighs, breasts and arms are the most commonly treated.
Before having any surgery, your weight loss should be complete and your weight steady (for three months at a minimum after diet and exercise and up to 18 months after some bariatric surgery procedures). Ideally your BMI (body mass index) should have reached 30 or under and your nutrition needs to be good for healing as well.
Body contouring is an umbrella term for many procedures that reduce and tighten loose skin with or without muscle tightening or fat reduction as well. The most common procedures are abdominoplasty (tummy tuck), liposuction, body lift, thigh lift, brachioplasty (arm lift), mastopexy (breast lift) but others can also be needed such as face and necklift. Combinations of these surgeries are often done at the same time.
The surgery is usually done under general anaesthetic as a day case procedure or with an overnight stay depending on the extent of surgery.
Reduction of excess and sagging skin, reduction of excess fat as well as lifting and reshaping of sagging tissue can be done. This is transformative for all aspects of life – mobility, exercise, fitting and choice of clothing, skin hygiene and health, social and intimate relationships.
Surgery to lift the upper eyelids (upper blepharoplasty) is one of the most popular local anaesthetic plastic surgery procedures. It has a quick recovery and the results are very natural, giving a refreshed and brighter appearance to the face. Upper blepharoplasty can be performed as a procedure on its own, but is frequently combined with other procedures, such as surgery to the brow, facelifts, or other plastic surgery operations.
General
TBC Depending on which procedure
TBC Depending on which procedure
TBC Depending on which procedure
Light exercise can resume after 4-6 weeks
Yes
This varies depending on the specific operation(s) being done and the extent of loose skin. It can range from 90 minutes to 6 hours!
The recovery is usually in the range of 6 to 8 weeks with further improvements in scar healing over the following year.
Removal of uncomfortable, heavy skin that is prone to irritation and infection, improvement of ability to exercise, improvement in fit and choice of clothing as well as quality of life across all areas including psychological aspects, social and intimate relationships.
In body contouring surgery after significant weight loss, the surgery time can be long and the incision lines/areas to heal quite large. Skin is also often thin and nutrition can be affected by the weight loss mechanism. This means that slow healing or healing and wound problems are more common in this type of surgery. Ensuring that you have the surgery at the correct time after your weight loss and that your nutrition is good helps a lot with this aspect. For more specific complications, please see the individual procedure pages.