Lower Body Lift Surgery After Weight Loss
People who have been very successful with their weight loss program often have an excess of skin and stubborn fat deposits all around the circumference of their midbody area. If this is what you see in your mirror, don't feel dismayed. There is a procedure — alternately known as lower body lift, torsoplasty and belt lipectomy — which offers the most dramatic improvement possible for most post-weight loss patients. If you decide this is the right choice, you'll be banishing excess tissue from the front and back of your torso and ridding yourself of any remaining love handles around your sides. Not only that, your buttocks and outer thighs will benefit from the lifting effect as well.
Not surprisingly, because torsoplasty offers such far-reaching benefits, it most often involves the longest time in the operating room and a higher cost than many other after weight loss surgery procedures. After investing so much in your weight loss program, however, the procedure may be exactly what you need to complete your transformation.
Request an appointment to come in and discuss your plastic surgery after weight loss options in the Sacramento offices of Dr. Kaufman. You'll find him to be open, honest and ready to partner with you to make the right decisions about resculpting your body.
Candidates for Lower Body Lift Surgery
The best candidates for lower body lift surgery after weight loss have reached their goal and are maintaining their new weight. They are also generally healthy and don't smoke. Those who realize the greatest benefit from a lower body lift are patients who have achieved significant weight loss and whose droopy skin can be characterized as moderate to severe.
Patients interested in abdominal plastic surgery after weight loss often suffer from flat or droopy buttocks as well. Dr. Kaufman offers procedures to improve the look of your posterior that can often be done during your lower body lift surgery. For patients who don't have enough volume in the right places, the surgeons can reposition or transfer fat. For patients who have too much fat, the area is easy to reduce. During your consultation, the surgeon will be happy to explain the options and work with you to design the right procedure to meet your goals.
Risks associated with circumferential abdominal procedures are generally the same as those for surgery confined to the front of the torso. The most severe of these include blood clots and pulmonary embolism. Other risks are infection and excess fluid. You should know numbness of the skin may persist in some areas, and ultimate appearance of scars is difficult to predict.
Lower Body Lift Surgery and Recovery
Depending on the amount of skin and fat needing removal, surgery takes four to six hours. The procedure is most often performed in Kaufman & Clark's state-of-the-art surgery center under the watchful eye of a board certified M.D. anesthesiologist. Most patients elect to have general anesthesia, though conscious sedation combined with epidural block is available to most people as an alternative.
Torsoplasty removes an entire belt of skin and fat around the abdomen. During the surgery the abdominal muscles are tightened as well, and when the skin is sutured back together the lifting effect extends to the buttocks and thighs.
To assist you in recovery, you'll have a postoperative pain pump for about three days. The pump drips a constant supply of local anesthesia into the area of muscle repair, which is typically where you'd experience the most discomfort. Most patients also have two or three drains for up to a week. Compression garments, worn for about six weeks, will help you heal faster and assist with the recontouring process. Most patients feel able to discontinue prescription pain medication in about seven to ten days and begin resuming light activities. More strenuous activities can be gradually added over the next several weeks. Most people feel ready for just about anything in a couple of months.
You'll be glad to know that torsoplasty is frequently performed at Kaufman & Clark Plastic Surgery. The practice has a fine track record for safety and excellent results. To learn more about torsoplasty and the other options for plastic surgery after weight loss for patients from Redding, Chico, Stockton, Modesto and throughout California, call 916-983-9895 and plan a visit to the office in nearby Folsom.
