Body Gallery

A woman in her early 30’s with Steatopygia , a lipodystrophy of excess fat in the buttock area.  Sometimes called a “duck tail”.    She is over her ideal body weight for someone 5’ 5 ½” at 202 lbs.  Liposuction is not a treatment for being overweight but can selectively remove excess fat.  In her case I performed power assisted liposuction using the S.A.F.E. technique

( Separation/Aspiration/Fat Equalization) and was able to obtain a good improvement with the removal of 5200 cc of lipo-aspirate from the lower back/ upper buttocks, flanks and inner thighs.   She is shown at 6 weeks after her procedure and is thrilled with her early improvement.  Swelling after liposuction typically takes 6 months to completely resolve, so we can expect further small improvement with time. She is thrilled with the new shape and projection of her buttocks in and out of clothing and the improvement in her waist and inner thighs.

A woman in her mid 40’s who is bothered by back rolls and looseness of the skin. She is shown before and again, 15 months after a bra line back lift combined with liposuction of the posterior shoulders. The bra line back lift trades a permanent scar that is hidden under the bra for better contour of the back.  She is able to hold her arms at her side after the surgery.

A mother of 1 in her mid 40’s who has always been bothered by fullness of her abdomen, even when younger, but now this is worse since her pregnancy.

She is bothered by bulging in fitted clothing and would also like to be able to wear a 2 piece bathing suit.  She had an external laser treatment to reduce fat in her stomach somewhere else but said this was painful and didn’t work.  Sh has also had cool sculpting to her inner thighs, again, without improvement.

She is shown before and again, 7 months after a lipo-abdominoplasty along with liposuction of her medial thighs.  Her weight is up 10 lbs since surgery ( now 5’4” and 150 lbs) but she maintains an excellent contour of the stomach.

Discussion.  Her abdominal skin has excess fat with a caliper pinch of 4.5 cm  I find 3 cm or less to be more idea.  Liposuction can be done separately as another procedure but in some cases can be cautiously added at the time of the abdominoplasty to thin the layer more and give a better result, as we did here.  Despite a significant weight gain she has maintained her contour in the abdomen.

A nurse and mother of 2 in ther later 30’s who had polyhydramnios with her second pregnancy and became quite large.  She has an umbilical hernia, a ventral hernia and a large diastasis of the rectus muscles.  She is frequently asked if she is still pregnant.  She is shown before and again, 6 months after abdominoplasty combined with umbilical hernia repair.

A mother of 3 in her mid 30’s who is bothered by the appearance of her stomach and the shape of her hips after her pregnancies.  She is shown before and again, 4 ½ months after abdominoplasty combined with liposuction of her hips and flanks using power assisted liposuction and the S.A.F.E. technique..  (Separation/Aspiration/Fat Equalization)

Exparel was used to limit postoperatibe pain. Tattoos are blurred for her privacy

A mother of 1 in her mid 40’s who was bothered by fullness of her abdomen before pregnancy but even more since her pregnancy.  She has tried a laser fat reducing procedure in a spa elsewhere but described it as painful and stated that it didn’t work.

She has also had cool sculpting elsewhere to her inner thighs but did not notice an improvement.

She is shown before and again 4 ½ months after lipo-abdominoplasty combined with liposuction of the inner thighs.  She can expect continued improvement in swelling over the next 2 months but is already thrilled with her improvement and just got back from a beach vacation where she felt happy to be comfortable wearing a bathing suit.

A mother of 3 in her mid 30’s who is bothered by the appearance of her abdomen as well as “muffin tops” fullness in her hips.  She is shown before and again, just 6 weeks after abdominoplasty combined with power assisted liposuction of her hips.  Close inspection of her preoperative photo will show that her umbilicus ( belly button) is deviated to her right.  At the time of surgery I used a “plumb line” suture to guide the plication of her loose muscle wall to bring it back to the midline.  Scars are typically at their worst at 6 weeks and there is also swelling in the abdomen and flanks.  The swelling generally resolves by 6 months and the scar continues to fade and improve for 2 years.  She is already thrilled with her improvement and loves being able to grab something from her closet and not worry about whether or not it will hide the bulging of her abdomen that she had after her three pregnancies. She had a breast reduction with us at the age of 18, and it has held up well through her pregnancies.  Tattoos have been blurred for her privacy

A nurse in her mid 50’s and mother of 4, including twins, who is bothered by bulging and looseness of the abdomen after pregnancy.  She had a breast reduction with us 15 years  before.  She is shown before and again, 8 ½ months after an extended abdominoplasty.  She had a history of a primary relative with an unexplained blood clot so she was treated in the postoperative period with Lovenox per the University of Michigan protocol, and had an uneventful postoperative course

There is a small vertical scar in the lower abdomen from the original opening around her umbilicus/ this allowed us to place her main horizontal scar in a “thong” position where it is low enough to be hidden by her clothing.

A woman in her mid 40’s who has had liposuction on two occasions in the past by another plastic surgeon focusing on the flanks and abdomen, and then cool sculpting to the bra line.  Her shoulders and the sides of her breasts  have gotten larger as she has gained weight in those areas ( the weight has to go somewhere and when fat cells are removed in one area, weight gain can cause an increase in other areas).  She is bothered by laxity of the back skin and rolls, but also having trouble putting her arms down at her side and fitting in tops because of he fullness of the upper back and shoulders

She is  shown 8 months after a bra line back lift combined with S.A.F.E. power assisted liposuction of the shoulders and sides.  This trades a scar that is hidden under the bra for a better contour.  It is noticeable that at rest she now comfortably holds her arms closer to her sides.