Surgery Helps Reduce Excess Skin After Massive Weight Loss

By Denise Freese

 

Whether you’ve lost a lot of weight due to a gastric bypass, lap band or gastric sleeve procedure, or with good old-fashioned diet and exercise, you may have a lot of excess skin that you can’t get rid of on your own.  Exercise will help you be fit and healthy inside your body, but after a large weight loss, the skin can’t necessarily accommodate your smaller body shape.

When a person gains 100 pounds or more, the skin is stretched and becomes thinner and less elastic.  After a weight loss of that magnitude, the appearance of stretch marks and loose, hanging skin is due to the excess tissue and skin that can’t conform to the body inside.

Dr. Robert Paresi, Board-certified Plastic Surgeon, offers surgical procedures to get rid of the excess skin.  “The first operation, a lower body lift, involves an incision almost all the way around the trunk of the body to remove the skin and fat,” said Dr. Paresi.  “This 5 to 6 hour operation helps the patient regain the shape of their trunk, or core.”  Subsequent operations depend on the patient’s issues and concerns; they may desire a breast or chest lift, an arm lift and/or an inner or outer thigh lift.  These procedures are done separately. 

Final results of these operations can be very dramatic.  The downside is that only the abdominal portion of the lower body lift is covered by health insurance.  The rest of the lower body lift procedure, and the additional breast/arm/thigh procedures, are out-of-pocket expenses.  For all the procedures listed, the costs for the hospital, anesthesia, and other services can run $30,000 - $40,000.

Because the risks of the procedures are higher for massive weight loss patients, medical clearance is needed, along with full lab work testing.  For more information about surgeries following a massive weight loss, please contact: