POST BARIATRIC SURGERY ORLANDO

For those of us who have difficulty achieving and maintaining the ideal weight, there is a way to shed the pounds surgically. Surgical procedures for weight loss are bariatric surgery. The word bariatric is a compound word that describes medical and surgical treatment for weight. More specifically bariatric treats massively overweight individuals. Furthermore, a BMI of 40 or higher also is a qualifying factor. There are a number of surgical procedures that change the mechanism by which food is ingested and metabolized in the body.

Some of these procedures are very effective in assisting these individuals to eliminate massive amounts of fat. Losing massive amounts of fat for a person who has spent the majority of their adult life obese is a very life-changing and significant transformation. Consulting with these individuals in our plastic surgery office is a very exciting time. We celebrate this major lifestyle change. And, hopefully, assist in a restructuring process. A process that will create for the patient a much more attractive body.

It requires a significant commitment not only financially but emotionally for an individual to begin and embark on this complete transformative activity. However, once all the excess fat is lost the new dilemma faced by these individuals is a profound overabundance of skin. Remodeling, reshaping, and discovering the body within is most fulfilling and rewarding

for these bariatric patients. The initial consultation focuses on the celebratory process.  Then we move on to the technical details required to redesign, reshape, and reveal that which lies within. Every patient is different. And, every design entity of these complex operations is unique for that individual person.

The reconstruction of and removal of the excess skin of the abdominal wall, the buttock, the back and sometimes with the inner thighs is termed the lower body lift. The design of this incision can begin on the front or the back. However, it will require careful placement and precise excision. The focus will be on the removal of all of the excess skin in order to achieve the best result. Therefore, the resulting scar will traverse the buttock, from the midline of the back, around to the groin area carried to the opposite side of the lower abdomen. And then around to the opposite biotic almost to the midline.  This is hence the lower body lift or beltectomy or belt lipectomy.

In some instances, there is present not only a vertical excess but also a horizontal excess.  In these situations, a vertical incision is required to completely tighten the circumferential excess skin present after profound weight loss. This is termed the fleur-de-lis incision. In combination with the circumferential incision, the vertical incision will produce the tightest most beneficial contouring procedure available to date.

THOMAS P. TREVISANI MD

BOARD CERTIFIED PLASTIC SURGEON