Body Contouring: Fastest Growing Plastic Surgery Trend

August 4, 2006
More and more seriously obese Americans are undergoing drastic weight loss surgeries to shed the excess pounds. But is it that easy to shed the excess skin? In the struggle to slim down, formerly obese patients find themselves dressed in rolls of heavy, uncomfortable loose skin. Body contouring procedures, one of the fastest growing invasive plastic surgeries in the U.S., can help newly petite patients shed their extra large skin.

Body Contouring Statistics

According to a mail-in survey conducted by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, people who dropped more than a 100 pounds, through restricted diets or surgery, had approximately 68,000 body contouring procedures last year, a 22 percent rise from 2004.

The rising number of weight loss procedures performed in the U.S is fueling the body contouring procedure trend. There were 112,000 stomach-reduction surgeries performed in 2003, a 740 percent increase from 1998, according to the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a database on in-patient operations in U.S. hospitals.

Body Contouring Restores Patients' Health

For many patients, living with extra skin is not an option since excess tissue can lead to severe rashes, chafing, fungal infections, sores or back pain. Plastic surgeons say that body contouring procedures help rejuvenate patients' health and can be life-altering for patients who were extremely obese.

“You take a person whose body has been distorted by massive weight loss and massive weight gain and you tighten residual skin to restore the patient to normalcy,” said Manhattan plastic surgeon Dr. Gerald H. Pitman.

Body Contouring Techniques

Body contouring procedures involve cutting away and tightening the loose skin that remains after a major weight loss. Because the procedures are extremely invasive and pose many risks including infection and hemorrhaging, doctors often stage the surgeries over a course of several years.

There are a number of techniques performed by different doctors to get the aesthetic results patients seek. Some surgeons perform “belt lipectomy” surgery in which a circumferential belt of skin is removed from the patient's waist. Others opt to combine a few procedures including a tummy tuck, thigh lift, or buttocks lift, because it allows them to better target other areas of loose skin.

However, patients should be aware that body contouring surgeries are very invasive procedures that require a long recovery period and leave permanent scars. Many doctors are pushing for more research in the field to help determine the best candidates for these surgeries, analyze aesthetic results, calculate the risks, and evaluate the psychological consequences the procedures may pose.

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