Massive Weight Loss or Bariatric surgery
You’ve lost weight. Isn’t it time to fix the loose skin?
Have you lost a large amount of weight from bariatric surgery, diet or exercise?
If the answer is yes then well done! Some people enlist the aid of a bariatric surgeon for a gastric sleeve or band- others might use a personal trainer, adjust their diet or change their exercise to get there but the common endpoint here is often loose and saggy skin.
After repairing your core muscles our surgeons will be able to remove most all the excess skin and fat below the belly button, leaving you with a flat abdomen and a scar hidden low in your underwear. The stretch marks will also be removed at the same time. When combined with liposuction this procedure can provide quite dramatic improvements to both your quality of life and your overall again.
What can I do about my arms?
What can I do about my arms?
Surgery on the arms and thighs can involve liposuction all the way to skin excision. This kind of surgery is called an arm or thigh lift. The major downside to this procedure is the visibility of external scarring so the severity of the loose skin usually needs to outweigh any potential scars that are incurred during treatment.
Available Tummy Treatments
What kind of tummy treatments are there?
Most Abdominoplastys can be divided into what would be considered a ‘full’ abdominoplasty or a ‘mini’ abdominoplasty. The full abdominoplasty is much more common. The ‘mini’ abdominoplasty tends to be with patients who are often quiet thin and tend to have mostly loose skin and stretch marks. The belly button will often stay in exactly the same point and will not move. If you have a fair bit of excess tummy tissue it is highly likely you’ll need a full Abdominoplasty. A Abdominoplasty is not a magic bullet for weight loss- diet and exercise are still key and surgery is primarily performed for repair of muscular structures and removal of loose skin and stubborn residual fatty areas and never for weight loss.
Removing stretch marks
Will it help to remove my stretch marks?
Stretch marks are a result of rapid skin stretching. They occur when the speed of growth is too fast for the skin to adapt. The skin’s top layer is called the epidermis, it’s thin and can often adapt. The thicker layer underneath is called the dermis and it is composed of a tough network of collage and is responsible for the thickness or ‘toughness ‘of the skin. A common example of this occurs during pregnancy. All stretch marks that are at or below the belly button are removed as part of the operation. As most stretch marks tend to be in the lower part of your tummy, a Abdominoplasty can be highly effective at improving both the contour and shape of your tummy and the texture of the skin. The resultant scar is horizontal and hidden within your underwear.
What should I do first?
What should I do first?
It is usually best to split up the operations into pairs. The most common bundle is an initial breast/chest and tummy stage followed by an arm or thigh stage later. Although you can bundle the operations together the surgical risk and complication rates start to rise the more procedures you perform at once. By doing this in two stages it is safer, your recovery is more predictable, and it also enables potential minor adjustments to be made at the secondary procedure if needed.
Downtime After Surgery
I’m a busy person-what kind of down time can I expect?
This depends upon many factors. Younger patients tend to recover faster than older patients. Your background medical history and difficulty level of the operation all will impact your recovery. In general terms you will often need a stay in hospital of between 2-5 nights. All the stitches are dissolvable, and the dressings usually come off at 2 weeks. You’ll be taking it easy when you return home for another week usually before you return to work but can return earlier if you have an office-based job. Exercise usually begins again at 6 weeks post-surgery.
Do I need health insurance to qualify?
Do I need health insurance to qualify?
In short no but there are many good reasons that you should have health insurance to have this kind of surgery. This kind of major al surgery is best performed with full insurance cover and you will need to check with our team and your fund to make sure you are covered. Usually you need to have at least lost 5 BMI points and kept the weight off for at least 6 months to qualify. Having this surgery completely uninsured is possible too but the hospital costs can add up quickly, so we don’t advise it. Call our patient representatives and they can help you through the process and help you with you BMI calculations
