Body Lift – Patient 130

A mother of 2 who has lost 100 lbs with diet and exercise from her maximum weight of 260 lbs and is now 5’4” and 160 lbs. She is bothered by “ rolls of skin which make it difficult for her to tuck in her shirt”. She was motivated to lose weight so that she would be more fit to play with her grandchildren. She is shown before and again, 1 year after an extended abdominplasty with the removal of 8 lbs of skin. 680 cc of fat was removed from the upper abdomen with liposuction at the same.

She is thrilled with her new contour.

Discussion: Her improvement is dramatic. The results of abdominoplasty after significant weight loss depend on the amount of weight that was lost to get down to an ideal body weight. Patients that have lost 20 lbs look better than patients who have lost 50 lbs. Pts who have lost 50 lbs look better than patients who have lost 100 lbs, and so on. Despite adding liposuction to the “rolls” above the umbilicus, she continues to have some excess skin. When patients have gained significant weight they have expanded in a horizontal direction above the umbilicus. The contour can be improved further by excising this extra skin in a vertical direction, albeit at the expense of a visible scar in the midline. This would become a “Fleur de Lis” abdominoplasty. I find that unless a patient already has a midline scar in the upper abdomen from a prior abdominal surgery that they do not want the tradeoff of this scar for additional tightening.