Scottsdale Plastic Surgeon Dr. Deborah White in the Media
Plastic Surgery After Massive Weight Loss
Excerpt from msnbc.com — March 4, 2004
Not just about vanity
For some weight-loss surgery patients, a body lift isn't about vanity or for simply cosmetic purposes. Hanging folds of flesh around the abdomen can cause rashes, chronic infections, hygiene problems and difficulties with exercising. These people may have conquered the health problems like diabetes that accompany excessive weight, but their clothes still don't fit properly.
"The profound effect is on body image," says Dr. J. Peter Rubin, director of the Life After Weight Loss Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, a center which specializes in body contouring and counseling. "The plastic surgery after weight loss can have just as powerful an effect on someone as the gastric bypass."
Not every person who has a weight-loss operation will see the need for additional surgery to counteract skin laxity. Age and genetics play a part, with older patients and those whose weight tops 400 pounds being the most likely candidates, plastic surgeons say.
The most common procedure is the tummy tuck, or the abdominoplasty, an operation designed to remove the "apron" of skin hanging from the stomach. Some people have skin removed from their sides and back, and their buttocks reshaped.
Other weight-loss patients may need a lower body lift, which includes lifting the skin up from the knees almost like pulling up a pair of pants, says Dr. Deborah White, a plastic surgeon in Scottsdale, Ariz. Some may need tightening and lifting in their upper arms, the chest or breasts.
"A person's arms may not go into the sleeves of their clothes because there's too much extra skin," says White.
Most of the skin-lifting procedures are scheduled about a year to 18 months after a patient's gastric bypass so that the majority of the weight has already been lost.
