Boost your confidence with Body Contouring at Kosmesis
If you suffer from severe skin laxity after a great weight loss, do not get disappointed. Body contouring aims at boosting your confidence.
During the last decades, western countries are coming face to face with the obesity endemic. According to official data, obesity rates across Europe and the USA have risen dramatically. Only in Greece, 42% of the population is overweight and obese, whereas the average percentage for the rest of Europe is about 38 %. The same problem occurs in the USA.
Hopefully, many people with weight problems manage to lose weight either with strict diets or with operations such as the gastric band or the gastric bypass. However, after a great weight loss, there is another problem to be fixed: sagging and excess skin on the body areas that have suddenly shrunk due to weight loss (abdomen, waist, inner thighs, arms, breast and face). Many times, skin laxity transforms the patient’s body, who despite having lost many kilos, don’t feel as well as they hoped. Body contouring is the solution to all these problems.
What is the purpose of body contouring?
The patient who resorts to the body contouring procedure has struggled a lot with themselves in order to lose weight and leave behind their obese selves. Even after losing the extra kilos, they do not feel confident as the aesthetic outcome of the surgery is often disappointing due to the severe skin laxity. The body contouring aims at offering them psychological, emotional and physical wellbeing.
What does body contouring involve?
The body contouring process is not one but a series of surgeries aiming at sculpting the body after a huge weight loss. These procedures are categorized into two groups: into those referring to the upper part of the body and those addressing the lower part.
The 1st category includes:
-Arm lift (brachioplasty)
-Breast lift
-Facelift
-Liposuction
The 2nd category includes:
-Thigh and buttocks lift
-Circumferential lift (belt lipectomy) or circumferential abdominoplasty (the most common intervention). With this procedure, we treat the excess skin laxity in the abdominal area and the waist.
Before the body contouring process starts, the plastic surgeon draws carefully the incisions. During the operation, the doctor turns the patient around in order to operate on both sides (abdomen and waist) at the same time. In the end of the surgery there is only one incision left and can be hidden inside the underwear. The body contouring procedure improves the abdomen, waist, buttocks, thighs and the back.
Before the surgery
The patient resorting to body contouring has usually undergone other bariatric procedures, such as the gastric band or the gastric bypass. This means that there are often additional health problems (hypertension, diabetes), so the pre-operative assessment must be detailed and careful. The tests required include complete blood count, biochemical tests, albumin, iron, vitamins, uric acid, coagulation test, heart and kidney tests and chest x-ray.
Two weeks before the body contouring surgery the patient must quit smoking, drugs, vitamins and aspirin. A healthy diet contributes to rapid recovery time.
Duration of the procedure and type of anesthesia
Body contouring involves a combination of operations which are performed under general anesthesia and require an experienced team of plastic surgeons. These patients have already undergone other surgeries so the doctor must reduce the time duration of the operation. On average, the circumferential abdominoplasty lasts from 4.5 to 6 hours.
After the operation performed on the abdominal area has finished, there is swelling and bruising which disappears after 10 days. The pain is bearable and treated with mild painkillers. The patient may gradually resume their daily activities about one month afterward. As long as the recovery time is good the incision will look like a faint line within 6-12 months. The results are permanent apart from a mild skin laxity that may occur in the first year after the body contouring.
Possible complications
Complications are rare. Less than 1% of patients may experience:
1. Hematoma
2. Inflammation
3. Hypertrophic scars
4. Vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism (in very rare cases)
Body Contouring at Kosmesis. Re-shape the contour of your body after a great weight loss, with the help of the award-winning plastic surgeons of Kosmesis. Book an appointment now!
